Navi Mumbai: A 55-year-old man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly sexually abusing his 16-year-old daughter since 2016, when she was seven. Police said the girl gathered courage to lodge a complaint against her accused father as she claimed that she was unable to bear the repeated sexual abuse and threats for several years at their residence.API Pandurang Ghagare of Khandeshwar said the girl gathered courage to lodge a police complaint against her accused father as she claimed that she was unable to bear the repeated sexual abuse and threats for several years at their residence. Ghagare said, “The accused owns a hardware store in New Panvel. His wife has separated from him for the past five years due to frequent domestic quarrels. Hence, the girl, her elder brother and sister resided with their father. The girl did not reveal her sexual assaults until she became an adolescent after turning 16 years old.”The accused was booked under relevant sections of BNS for the offence of punishment for rape, aggravated rape, committing rape repeatedly on the same woman, committing rape on a girl under 16 years of age, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation along with the Pocso Act.On Friday, the arrested accused was produced before Panvel district sessions court for the Pocso Act case and was remanded to police custody till Sunday. Thereafter, he will be sent to jail custody at Taloja Central Prison.
