85-yr-old man charged with raping Jajpur minor for months arrested

Kendrapada: A court in Jajpur district on Tuesday remanded the 85-year-old father-in-law of a senior Bhubaneswar-based state government officer in judicial custody after he was arrested on Monday evening for allegedly repeatedly raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl.
Prafulla Chandra Mohapatra was arrested by Jajpur Police following his discharge from a hospital in the state capital, where he had been admitted for the past few weeks for ill health.“We arrested Mohapatra on the charges of raping and impregnating a minor tribal girl of a village under Balichandrapur police station in Jajpur district. The crime was carried out when the girl worked as a maid in the accused man’s son-in-law’s house in Bhubaneswar, where the accused also stayed. The accused has confessed to his crime,” said deputy superintendent of police (Jajpur) Sangram Tudu.
The octogenarian was produced in the court of the district and sessions judge in Jajpur, which rejected his bail application and remanded him in jail custody, Tudu added.
The girl had returned to her village last month and narrated her ordeal to her mother. The mother, who had filed a police complaint against the accused in Balichadrapur police station on November 2, said her daughter had been repeatedly raped by the elderly man for the past 12 months. “The accused used to threaten her with dire consequences if she revealed her ordeal to anyone,” the complainant has said in the police complaint.
Acting on the FIR , police filed a case against the octogenarian under sections 376 (rape) of the IPC, Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and Section 3 of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The girl had earlier been examined by doctors of the district headquarters hospital in Jajpur and was found to be in the eighth month of pregnancy. As per the law, medical termination of pregnancy until only 20 weeks (4 months) is legal. For minors, written consent from parents is required to carry out an abortion.
The child welfare committee (CWC) of the district recently directed that the girl be sent to a state-aided shelter home for care till she is delivered of her child. “We have shifted her to the government-run shelter home in Jajpur town,” said Niranjan Kar, District Child Protection Officer.