Father arrested for allegedly raping 2-year-old daughter and threatening wife

Police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra have arrested a man for allegedly raping his two-year-old daughter and threatening his wife with dire consequences if she reported it to the police.

The incident happened in the Sangvi locality of Pune city when the child's mother was in the washroom. In her complaint, she said that on 30 November when she came out of the washroom she saw that her husband, who had no clothes on, was doing something suspicious with the toddler.

"She immediately stopped him and saw that the girl's private parts had turned red. She wanted to take her daughter to the doctor and the police. But her husband threatened her into silence," the complaint filed against the accused stated.

The woman added that two days after the first incident, her husband repeated the act again but this time she did not pay attention to his threats and lodged a complaint against him.

Ajay Chandkhede, police inspector, Sangvi, said: "The mother of the child, who is homemaker, lodged the FIR against her husband on Thursday [7 December] morning. Two days ago, the accused again repeated the act. This time, however, his wife did not pay heed to his threats."

The 28-year-old accused, who is a transport driver, was arrested later on Thursday and has been booked under the sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act and Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with unnatural sex offences.

The incident comes on the heels of another case where a father who raped and fathered his teen daughter's baby was given 43 years in jail.

S Kamaraj from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu had repeatedly raped his minor daughter since July 2013 by threatening to murder her. In 2014, the girl developed health problems and later informed her mother Pazhaniammal regarding the crime. After a medical examination, it was confirmed that she was pregnant and had been physically assaulted.

A district sessions judge awarded the 51-year-old labour three consecutive terms of life imprisonment and a year's rigorous imprisonment, all of which would run consecutively. He was also slapped with a fine of INR 3,500 ($$54.215, £40.52) under the POSCO Act, failure to pay that would add another three years to his sentence.