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72-year-old scientist held for sexually abusing 3 adopted daughters
NAGPUR: The Nagpur police on Thursday arrested a 72-year-old retired scientist for allegedly sexually abusing his three adopted minor daughters.
NAGPUR: The Nagpur police on Thursday arrested a 72-year-old retired scientist for allegedly sexually abusing his three adopted minor daughters.
Rajendra Mane, the investigating officer of Dhantoli police station, said that they have arrested Maqsood Ansari, a retired scientist of prestigious National Environmental Engineering Research Institution (NEERI) on the basis of a complaint filed by his eldest adopted daughter, a 16-year-old.
Ansari retired from NEERI as scientist in 2000. According to sources, he married thrice but did not father any children from any of his wives. His last wife, from Nagpur, divorced him 15 years ago and remarried in Amravati. During his third marriage, Ansari adopted three girls at different periods of time. The girls are now aged 6, 11 and 16.
The incident came to light when the eldest daughter approached the police. According to her complaint, Ansari had first forced himself on her in 2008 when she was just an eight-year-old. At that time she did not understand what Ansari was doing to her as she was too young. She claims that Ansari had raped her several times after that. He had allegedly even tried to molest his other adopted daughters, the six and 11-year-olds.
Initially, the girls could not understand their adoptive father’s behaviour. It was only when the eldest daughter, now in Class 10, began to understand a foul play that she narrated her ordeal to a friend, who in turn confided in her mother. The mother contacted the crime branch officials immediately. The information was then passed to Dhantoli police.
Accordingly, Ansari has been booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and arrested.
The eldest girl is a student of Class 10 and the others are in Class 6 and 1. “The girls will continue their education with the help of an NGO. The police will meanwhile investigate how the girls were adopted,” said deputy commissioner of police Deepali Masirkar.
The police could not find any adoption documents while searching the house and Ansari too has not revealed any information about the adoption process, she added.
