Police have registered a case against 44 people for allegedly harassing and raping a 17-year-old girl in the Malappuram district of Kerala.
Police said that so far 20 people have been arrested in the case. The victim girl is said to be currently under the care of the Government Girl Care Committee.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police PP Shams, the victim was sexually assaulted once in 2016 and again in 2017 when she was 13 years old.
The latest incident is the third. The DSP said the girl had given 164 statements before a magistrate that she had been sexually assaulted three times.
She was taken to the Nirbhaya Shelter Home after the incident, from where she was sent to her relative’s house. There, she claimed to have been sexually harassed for the third time.
It is noteworthy that most of the accused belong to the same area. DSP said that now, the victim is in a safe place where no one can intimidate or seduce her. The investigation was ongoing.