By Matters India Reporter
Panaji: India continues to report crimes against women on a daily basis.
On April 15, police in Goa, western India, rescued eight girls who were confined to a flat in Vasco city.
Police said the girls, in the age of six to 12 years, were allegedly tortured, including branding them with a hot knife.
The police also arrested Venus Habib, a 65-year-old woman, who allegedly beat up the girls, who she claimed to have adopted, Vasco police station inspector Nolasco Raposo told reporters.
The police rescued the girls from the flat in the Baina, a former redlight area, with the help of an NGO.
Some local people had spotted a girl with injury marks on her hand during a church service on April 15, Raposo said.
He added that the girl narrated her ordeal to the some people who, in turn, alerted the police.
“The police raided the flat owned by Habib and found seven more girls confined there. The girls told the police that they were being assaulted by the woman with a pipe and a hot knife on their hands and legs for petty reasons,” Raposo said.
Police have registered a case against Habib under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for kidnapping, hurting with dangerous weapons and violating Children’s Act, he added. The girls were sent to Apna Ghar (Own home), a shelter run by the state government at Merces.
The girls were rescued on the same day police in Surat, in Gujarat state, announced 20,000 rupees to identify the body of a minor girl.
It was discovered on April 6 from bushes near a cricket ground Bhestan locality in Surat.
A doctor at the city civil hospital where the postmortem was conducted said the girl’s body bore as many as 86 injury marks.
Police officials said they girl must have been held captive, raped.
The girl was believed to be in the age group of 9 to 11 years.
April 15 also saw nationwide protests against the increasing crimes against women.