Representative image of a protest against rape.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chitradurga: The moulvi of a local mosque has been arrested by the sleuths of the women’s police station on charges of raping a 17-year-old girl on the pretext of exorcising the ghost possessing her.
The girl’s 23-year-old brother has also been arrested for being a partner in the crime.
The victim has delivered before term and is undergoing treatment at the district hospital here. The moulvi, identified as Abdul Rehman from Uttar Pradesh, was giving Quran lessons to the girl for the past three years. Rehman has been staying in the state for 20 years now.
The moulvi made the family of the girl, who has completed II PU, believe that she was possessed and asked her mother to go out of the house so that he could cure her.
Rehman also made the girl’s brother to rape her so that the ‘sprit was exorcised’ and had filmed the act on his mobile phone. He had warned the family not to tell anyone of the weekly ‘treatment’ as the same would make it ineffective.
The girl complained of severe pain in the stomach and was taken to the district hospital, where she opened up about her ordeal.
“We got details about the incident from the district hospital. The suspects have been taken into custody and questioned. A rape case and a case under the Pocso Act have been registered,” district Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Kumar Meena said.