Bengaluru: The Karnataka Police have arrested six persons, including two women on charges of raping a 16-year-old girl in Bengaluru, police said on Friday.
The accused had women laced juice with sedatives and sold the girl to customers for over a week after threatening her.
The two women who were arrested have been identified as Kalavathi (52), a resident of Agara and Rajeshwari (50), a resident of Bandepalya. Others who have also been arrested include Keshavamurthy (47), Deputy Manager of an automobile company in Hosur; Satyaraju (43), a resident of Koramangala; Sharath (38), a resident of Yelahanka and Rafeeq (38) from Begur. They all raped the girl when she was unconscious.
The police said the 16-year-old girl was repeatedly raped for six days. The police have lodged cases under the Protection of Children from the Sexual Offences Act (Pocso), kidnapping, human trafficking, rape, prostitution and life threat against the accused persons.
The family of the victim had come to Bengaluru seeking livelihood and settled here. The parents of the girl worked as labourers. Rajeshwari, who was staying in the neighbourhood, ran a tailoring shop and after school hours, the victim went there to learn to tailor.
When the girl was resting at her house, the accused Rajeshwari took her to the house and laced juice with sedatives. After she fell unconscious, accused Keshavamurthy raped her. When the girl woke up, she found bloodstains all over. The accused had told her that she had fallen unconscious at her house and forced her to take bath before she left.
Two days later, Rajeshwari asked the victim to come to her house. When the girl refused to come, the accused threatened and took her to another accused Kalavathy’s home. Both the accused threatened her and made the victim entertain other men.
The mother of the girl upon noticing blood stains on her daughter’s clothes and seeing her reluctance to go to Rajeshwari for learning to tailor became suspicious. On questioning, her daughter revealed the trauma.
The mother then lodged a police complaint with the HSR Layout police station. The police formed four teams and nabbed the accused in 36 hours.
The police investigation showed that accused Rajeshwari and Kalavathi had been working as sex workers for the past seven years. They operated individually and got their clients. Rajeshwari and her friend Kalavathi lured women and girls, who came to the tailoring shop, into prostitution.
(Photo: Keshavamurthy)