In a shocking incident from Mumbai, The Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested a 42-year-old woman and are looking for her boyfriend and sister for allegedly sexually assaulting and torturing a 13-year-old boy.

“When the boy resisted the sexual assault, they allegedly burned his hands and legs with a hot spatula,” the police said.

The arrested woman is the boy’s mother who works in a private hospital and lives in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. Her husband used to live in Mumbai and shifted to Pune, his hometown, a few years ago. He is in the farming business. The woman had separated from her husband over a marital dispute few years back.  

As per the statement given to the police, the boy, who studies in Class 9 in Pune, has alleged that his mother would get drunk with her male friend (45) at home and would warn him not to resist when her male friend would allegedly perform an unnatural sexual assault on him. 

The boy has also alleged that her mother’s younger sister (38), also a Pune resident, would indulge in obscene and vulgar acts with the boy. All these incidents occurred between October 2018 and May 2019, when the boy was in Class 4.

“The shocking series of incidents took place five years ago and surfaced recently. The incident left the boy in shock and trauma, and he would not talk much to people. His father would often try to open him up and speak his mind, but in vain. Suspecting something fishy was going on, his father started going through his notebooks and was shocked to find a notebook in which the boy had narrated his ordeal in note forms,” the police officials said. 

“The father approached the police, and since the incidents took place in Mumbai, he came to Mumbai and filed a complaint with the Mumbai police. The police immediately registered an FIR and arrested the mother. Her boyfriend and sister are still wanted in the case. The woman has been remanded in police custody up to September 30,” an officer added. 

“The boy’s detailed statement will be recorded before the magistrate,” said another police officer. All three accused have been charged with sections 377 (unnatural sex), 323 (assault) and 506 (death threat) of the Indian Penal Code and 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The police have now roped in counsellors for the boy, who will be taken to the  Child Welfare Committee for counselling.”