Rape survivor from Nepal handed over to mother after DNA test

The DNA test was carried out to ascertain her parentage as two families from Nepal had claimed her to be their daughter

RUDRAPUR: A 19-year-old Nepalese woman, who was allegedly raped in 2018 and was living in a shelter home in Almora in Uttarakhand, has been handed over to her mother following a DNA test to ascertain her parentage as two families from Nepal had claimed her to be their daughter.

A 19-year-old woman, who was allegedly raped in 2018 and was living in a shelter home in Almora in Uttarakhand, has been handed over to her mother. (HT photo/ Representational image)

District probation officer Rajeev Nayan Tiwari said they conducted the test after getting permission from a court and handed over the woman to her mother on Thursday.

A distant relative, who had brought her to Kumaon when she was four or five, allegedly raped the woman in Nainital when she was 15. Police arrested the accused and sent him to jail. The woman was a minor at the time of the crime and Nainital’s Child Welfare Committee sent her to the shelter home in Almora.

Tiwari said since she was abducted when she was a child, she failed to recognise her real parents. “[We] approached the police and the court for conducting DNA tests...” He added that after getting the DNA report, they contacted the real parents through Maiti, a Nepalese NGO. “All legal and other formalities were carried out.”