A 68-year-old retired armyman has been arrested in Jaipur for raping his 16-year-old granddaughter for the last four years.
The matter was reported after the girl, who had left home with a neighbour last month, unable to bear the constant abuse, was traced in Dausa two days ago.
In her statement to the police, the girl said Subedar Tila Ram, a widower, used to assault her sexually since she was 12 years old. Once she had even got pregnant and had to undergo an abortion. "He often threatened to kill me if I disclosed anything," the girl said in her statement.
Even so, she had once complained to her parents, but it was of no avail.
They had spoken to her grandfather, but the abuse did not stop. Once he even tried to befriend her classmate but didn't succeed.
The girl, her younger brother and sister stayed with Tila Ram in Jaipur and attended a private school.
He bore the expenses since his son, a farm worker at a village in Dausa district, was unable to afford the cost.
"The father, due to his poverty, could not bring up the kids and the grandfather kept them with him on the pretext of providing them with a good education," said Jhotwara police station in-charge Parwat Singh.
{{/usCountry}}"The father, due to his poverty, could not bring up the kids and the grandfather kept them with him on the pretext of providing them with a good education," said Jhotwara police station in-charge Parwat Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Tila Ram was arrested after medical examination of the girl confirmed rape, said Singh. Since the girl is a minor, the young man who she had gone away with has also been arrested on charges of abduction, the police said.