Sanu of Tatopani, Sindhupalchowk had remained silent all these years as her step father Jang Bahadur Rai had threatened to kill her if she told anyone about his sexual advances. But, when her mother Sunita knew about her husband´s misdeeds, he asked her daughter to report to the police. [break]
“First he denied having sexually abused my daughter. When she started crying he warned us of dire consequences if we told about the incident to anyone," Sunita told Republica. She then called the police and her husband was subsequently arrested.
On Tuesday morning, she had yelled at her daughter, after she took long time in the bathroom. “I entered the toilet and what I found was horrible. She had been bleeding,” she added. Sanu told her that her father had been raping her for long time.
“On Saturday, he gave me Rs 50 and then raped me," Sanu said, adding, “He sent out two of my small sisters out of the room, closed the doors and windows and then took me to bed.”
Sunita started suspecting her husband some two weeks ago, when he went to sleep with her daughter at midnight. The Rai family has been living in a rented room with a single bed. Sunita and her husband had been sleeping on the floor to allow children to sleep on bed. “Some two weeks ago we had slept on the floor. When I fell asleep, my husband went to bed," she said.
Sunita was shocked when her daughter told her that Jung Bahadur had raped her. Sanu had come to live with her parents only some two months ago. She had been working as a domestic help before coming to live with her parents.
Sunita said her husband was a criminal and that he had been arrested several times in the past. Police has sent Sanu to hospital for forensic test.
Sunita´s woeful story
I was only 11 when my step-mother forced me to marry a man 41 years older than me. I fled the house several times but the man always found me. He would tie me up and then beat me mercilessly.
I am just 27 now with six children from two husbands. I gave birth to my first child at the age of 14. My first husband didn´t allow me to use contraceptives as he believed that no one would marry me if I had many children.
I eloped with Jung Bahadur four years ago. I did not know him earlier. He had come to my maternal home saying the administration would help me get justice and that he would help me. I believed him but instead he brought me to the capital. Everything became clear when he took me to his rented room.
My first husband had thrown me out so I agreed to marry him after he assured of providing shelter to my two children from ex-husband. Two years ago he broke my ribs. Last year he broke my leg. He beats me mercilessly. He has not taken me to his home in the village. I am illiterate. I know it would be difficult for me to find a job. I also have small children to look after and I have no relatives to support me. I don´t know what I should do next.
Food crisis looms large as drought hits Madhesh districts