I-T officer held for raping minor help

More than a year after being booked, a deputy commissioner of the income tax department, Veerabhadram Vislavath, was Thursday arrested for allegedly raping his 12-year-old help.

While deputy commissioner of police Dnyaneshwar Chavan confirmed the arrest, police remained tight-lipped on what caused the delay, despite the case being registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Vislavath was transferred to Mumbai from Uttar Pradesh in 2015, and lived with his wife and a daughter. In her complaint to the police, the survivor’s mother said her two daughters came to Mumbai in 2016. They lived at Vislavath’s home “as they were attached to his infant daughter”.

“Vislavath started to molest the girl in the absence of his wife. When she protested, he boasted about his job and money, saying he would buy her jewellery,” the woman said in her statement.

On February 10 last year, Vislavath allegedly raped the minor when his wife was at the neighbour’s house.

“When the girl protested , he slapped her and tried to strangle her with her dupatta,” the FIR stated.

The IRS officer allegedly threatened to “destroy her life” by uploading on the internet the pictures he took while she was bathing and also reportedly threatened to behead her.

Within a few months, the girls returned to their native town in UP, and narrated the incident to their mother.