TURA: A sixty-year-old man has been arrested for the rape of his seven-year-old granddaughter in a village in Kharkutta region of North Garo Hills on Wednesday.
The accused, Deny Marak, reportedly committed the crime on April 10th afternoon and had used threats to silence the child. She was able to muster up courage and narrated her tale of ordeal to her mother today prompting the family along with the help of villagers to hand the old man over to police at Kharkutta police station.
Both the accused and the victim hailed from Kama Gandim village of Kharkutta.
The child along with her family had only a couple of months back been forced out of the house by the accused grandfather following an altercation, it was reported.
On that fateful afternoon, the granddaughter had gone to the house to collect her study book to head to a tuition class nearby when the grandfather took advantage of her entry into the house and committed the crime.
The incident is one among many such crimes against women and children that are surfacing with regularity in a matrilineal state like Meghalaya, particularly in the Garo Hills region.
Already, angered by the rising cases of sexual assaults on children, several NGOs in Tura are planning to hold a series of protest rallies to highlight the issue. The Bakdil NGO, together with the Childline organization is taking out a silent protest rally in Tura today to raise awareness about the issue and also to condemn the rising cases of attacks on children.