CHENNAI: A packed courtroom in Chennai turned silent recently as a young woman, missing for a decade, unexpectedly appeared to testify against the man who had abducted and raped her when she was 12. Her testimony, recounting years of trauma, disrupted schooling, and a life spent in fear, led to the conviction of the man. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Back in 2015, the child was living with her family on the first floor of a house in Chennai. The house owner’s son-in-law, Abbas Ali, then 41, abused her frequently. On Feb 7 that year, Abbas Ali abducted her and took her to Dindigul, around 430 km from Chennai. There, he booked a hotel room and raped her before abandoning her and returning to the city.
Her parents filed a child missing complaint and the police found the girl two days later. A case was filed against Abbas Ali based on the mother’s complaint. But what should have been an open-and-shut case turned uncertain — by the next day, the girl was missing again.
The family had disintegrated under pressure. The parents separated, and the mother and child moved to a remote village in southern Tamil Nadu for safety and anonymity. But Ali tracked them down and threatened to kill them if they returned to Chennai to testify.
To stay safe, the mother and daughter began living under new identities, shifting from village to village. The girl, deeply affected by trauma and with no access to psychological help, dropped out of school. The two survived on daily wage work.
Despite the odds, the MKB Nagar all-women police continued efforts to trace the survivor. Earlier this year, they located her and brought her to court, said special public prosecutor S Anitha.
Now 22, the woman hesitated and stumbled through her statement but eventually recounted the sexual abuse and the years spent in hiding, giving the court the testimony it had waited nearly 10 years to hear.
Based on her testimony, Abbas Ali was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge on April 3 also directed the state to pay her Rs 15 lakh as compensation.
