From plumbers to security guards of a gated society located in Purasawalkam, a 12-year-old girl was raped by 22 men for seven months. The girl had a hearing disorder and the horrific case was reported by her mother on Monday. The police have arrested 18 men and they have been booked under the sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). 

The police complaint was lodged at the Ayanavaram police station, Chennai. The minor was subjected to cruelty, torture and sexual assault. She was sedated by drugs, injections and a powder that they made her sniff before sexually assaulting her. The predators had taken videos of the act and were blackmailing her for sexual favours.

The victim was Class 7 student and she recently dictated her ordeal to her sister, who lives in Delhi but was on visit home. Then the sister informed the mother about the trauma she had been going through. The perpetrators allegedly blackmailed her that if she informs anyone about the incident, they would release her videos. 

The girl informed police that first, Ravi Kumar, a 66-year-old elevator operator, assaulted her, next day he brought two men along with him. These men shot a video while raping the victim. Eventually, more and more men began joining them. The police officer told the national daily, “Ravi would lead the child as soon as she used to de-board from her school van to the basement, public washrooms, terrace and to the gym, where he and his accomplices would rape her.” 

The 300-flats society complex was mostly vacant, which gave a free space to the perpetrators to commit the horrific crime. The girl’s father used to be at work during whole day, her mother was homemaker but she did not think anything was amiss when the girl came home late. She presumed that she must have been playing with her friends in the complex. 

The victim’s parents took her to Kilpauk Medical college and Hospital, where the doctors found out that several men had raped her.