CHENNAI (INDIA)
New Indian Express [Chennai, India]
April 24, 2021
The Chennai police have arrested the priest of a church and three other relatives of a minor girl who was allegedly sexually abused by them. The arrests came almost 10 days after her mother, a playback singer, lodged a complaint.
Apart from the priest Henri (40), those arrested included the singer’s sister, the latter’s husband and the husband’s brother. While the police registered a case a week ago, the accused were picked up from a farmhouse in Tindivanam on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.
Police said that the singer left her daughter in her sister’s custody when the victim was just six as she had to relocate to Hyderabad. The girl, who is 15 years old now and studying at a private school, reportedly informed her mother recently about the abuse she was subjected to by her aunt, uncle and the priest Henri, when she was taken to the church.
Though the suspects allegedly informed that they have been falsely accused, police remanded them in judicial custody as the victim reportedly stood her ground. Police, not elaborating on the kind of abuse the victim was subjected to, said that the priest touched her inappropriately when she visited the church and her uncle too did the same while bathing her when she was below 10.