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Hyderabad: On Sunday (May 10), while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing a public meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Hyderabad, the party was being rocked by a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, registered just two days earlier against Bandi Sai Bageerath, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy intervened in the matter, summoning Director General of Police (DGP) C.V. Anand, reportedly for first-hand information on the investigation. On Reddy’s instructions, the DGP constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by IPS officer Ritiraj, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Kukatpally.

The SIT has been tasked with conducting a thorough probe into a complaint, filed on May 8, by a 17-year-old girl’s mother alleging sexual abuse by Bageerath at a farmhouse in Moinabad, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, on December 31 last year. A counter-complaint has also been filed by Bageerath against the girl and her family.

Details of the complaints

The complainant states her daughter was forced to consume alcohol despite having resisted. She further alleged that Bageerath entered her room and behaved inappropriately, forcing her to stay at the farmhouse overnight with five other boys and two girls. The woman said in her complaint that her daughter was induced into a “relationship” with Bageerath through mutual contacts six months earlier.

According to the complaint, Bageerath gave the girl assurances that he would marry her once she turned 18. Before the farmhouse incident, he allegedly took the girl to private locations, including residential premises, and subjected her to “sexual and physical abuse”, the complaint states.

A week later, he abruptly terminated the relationship and refused to take responsibility for his actions, says the complaint. “As a direct consequence of sustained abuse and abandonment, my daughter suffered severe emotional trauma and attempted self-harm on January 19 and 26,” it says. “When we initiated steps to seek legal remedy in March, we began receiving........

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