The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cases of abuse of minor girls on the rise in city

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 27, 2007
ePaper


<SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT>

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Cases of abuse of minor girls on the rise in city

LAW &ORDER Even close to five years after the murder of Hemavathi, the culprits are yet to be traced, writes K.V. Subramanya

THE RAPE and murder of a 12-year-old girl at Vijaya Bank Colony on Bannerghatta Road on Wednesday has highlighted how minor girls are increasingly becoming victims of sexual abuse in the city.

In separate incidents reported from High Grounds and Kamakshipalya police station limits this week, attempts were made to rape two girls aged four and nine. As in most of the child sexual abuse cases, the accused in all the three incidents were known to the victims.

While the police have arrested the accused, investigation into incidents in the past has reached a dead end. The most sensational of them was the rape and murder of Hemavathi (9) in Peenya police station limits in May 2002.

Even five years after the murder, the police are yet to trace the culprits. Hemavathi went missing in the early hours of May 17, 2002 and she was found murdered the next day. After raping the girl, the culprits had throttled her and smashed her head with a boulder.

Hemavathi was the daughter of Pandurangappa, a lathe machine worker and resident of Vinayakanagar. On the night of May 16, Pandurangappa's family had been to Honnyalamma fair, near their house, which went on till the next morning.

Around 12.30 a.m., Hemavathi's parents returned home. But Hemavathi, her grandmother and some other relatives stayed back to watch "keelu-kudure" performance by a Tamil Nadu troupe.

Around 1.15 a.m., Hemavathi told her grandmother that she would go home to drink water and return to watch the show. When the girl did not return, her grandmother assumed that Hemavathi had stayed back at the house.

When the elderly woman returned home at 4 a.m., she found that Hemavathi had not returned. Subsequently, Pandurangappa lodged a complaint with Peenya police that his daughter was missing. Around 9 p.m. on May 17, a person working in a poultry farm at Doddabidarukallu informed the police that the body of a girl was lying in an eucalyptus grove near the farm. The body was identified as that of Hemavathi.

Soon after the rape and murder came to light, the police suspected that the "psychopath killer and rapist" Umesh Reddy could have committed the crime.

While Hemavathi was killed in Peenya police station limits in the early hours of May 17, Reddy was apprehended by the police in the neighbouring Yeshwanthapur on May 18. Reddy was an accused in four cases of rape and murder in Peenya police station limits. The police later ruled out Reddy's involvement in Hemavathi's murder.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka