A 42-year-old man has been arrested on Friday for allegedly raping and impregnating two of his minor step-daughters in the Eluru district of Andhra Pradesh, police told news agency PTI.The impregnated girls were aged 17 years and 16 years respectively, police said. The shocking incident has taken place at the Pedapadu mandal in Eluru district.“Instead of playing the role of a father, that person [stepfather] has committed sexual assault on both girls,” a police officer told PTI.Mother forced minor daughters to allow sexual assault, says Eluru policeThe most shocking aspect of the incident is that the long sexual assault was arranged by the mother of the minor girls.According to Disha Police Station inspector Indra Srinivasa Rao, the mother, whose family belongs to Visakhapatnam, was first married in 2004 and gave birth to two daughters, but her husband passed away in 2007 due to health problems. She then married her paternal cousin in 2010.However, the man soon threatened to leave the woman and marry someone else if there were no children. As the woman had undergone birth control surgery, she had no chance of conceiving.As an attempt to save her marriage, she consented to her husband bearing children with her two minor daughters, who had just attended puberty. She then forced her elder daughter to have sex with her step-father, who got impregnated and gave birth to a baby girl in 2017.As the man expressed his desire for a baby boy, the woman then forced her younger daughter into the same ordeal, and she gave birth to a baby boy in 2022, which died soon after birth. The mother and the stepfather disposed of the babys body in a canal.According to a complaint registered by the minor girls, the stepfather had been sexually assaulting them since they were aged 13 and 14 and studying in classes 9 and 10.The stepfather and mother were finally arrested after Eluru SP D Mary Prashanthi got confidential information about the incident and instructed the Disha Police Station to investigate the matter. The minor girls then explained their ordeal to the police, and based on their report, the pair have been arrested and charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.Further investigation on the matter is underway by the Disha Police Station.
