72-year-old Hyderabad author held for allegedly sexually assaulting 13-year-old

A 72-year-old man, who is an author and publishes law books, was arrested in Hyderabad for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, police said on Tuesday, January 11. The man, who used to visit the girl's house to purchase stitched bags to sell with his law books, allegedly sexually assaulted her for the first time in September last year and in December, he allegedly raped her in the absence of other family members at her house, a release from Rachakonda Police Commissionerate said**.

The girl informed the matter to her mother, who filed a complaint in Meerpet Police Station. During the course of investigation the police arrested the accused, Gadhe Veera Reddy, a resident of Barkatpura, on January 11 evening. Police said they seized two non-judicial stamp papers, which they said were sent by the accused to the girl's mother and uncle through WhatsApp asking them to withdraw the case, and threatening to die by suicide alleging their harassment in his death if they did not do so. 

In 2010, the girl's mother used to work as a domestic worker in the house of the accused and later in 2017, he gave her a job to keep watch over one of his open plots in Badangpet, police said. Thereafter the girl's mother and her uncle purchased a house in Meerpet police station limits and were residing there, police added.

According the statement from the police, in September, the man sexually assaulted the minor first in September 2021. Later in December, when her mother was away at her native place, and the girl was left in her uncle’s care, the accused visited their house when no one else was present and allegedly raped her, the statement said. The accused has been booked under sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 376(3) (rape of a woman under 16 years of age), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.