5 February, 2010 - Tsirang police have detained a 47-year old man for allegedly beating his wife and raping and impregnating his 14-year old stepdaughter.

The man was arrested on January 19 after his wife, Pema Yuden, 38, alleged that her husband beat her. On interrogation, the man admitted to havING raped the stepdaughter, then only 12 years old. “He beat the mother, asking her to bring the daughter, who was sent to Thimphu after delivering the child,” a police official said. On the afternoon of January 19, according to Pema Yuden, she was doing household chores when her husband returned from a friend’s place. “He picked a quarrel and then beat me,” she said.

Pema Yuden said that her husband brought her second eldest daughter, who was working as a babysitter in Tsirang, back home two years ago. “Since then he always took her to cook for him, whenever he went for timber sawing works,” she said.

The girl said that one evening in February 2008, she was preparing dinner in a makeshift tent in Waklaytar when her stepfather made sexual attempts. “I ran away but he caught me on the way and beat me and took me back to the tent,” she said, adding that, at around 10 pm that night, he raped her. “I couldn’t do anything since he threatened me that he’d beat me if I told anybody about the incident.”

The girl said that, after they returned from Waklaytar, she refused to go with her stepfather. “My mother then sent me to Thimphu to look after my grandmother,” she said. But the girl was brought back to Pakhey after relatives found her pregnant.

“After I knew that my husband was the father of the child, I informed the village tshogpa,” she said, adding, “But I withdrew the case, because he was the sole bread earner and I had many small children to feed.” She alleged that her husband and battered her every time he drank and even sold all the cattle.

Two weeks after delivering the child, the girl was sent to Thimphu again. “But my stepfather refused to send my child with me, saying that he has equal right to claim the child,” the girl said. Pema Yuden said that she decided to send her daughter to Thimphu fearing rape again. Today the child, nine months old, is fed milk powder and looked after by the grandmother.

“I don’t even have money to buy milk,” the mother said, strapping the child on her back. Pema Yuden said that this time she had to report to police because he always assaulted her after drinking. “There wasn’t even a single night when I slept peacefully at home,” she alleged. The case has been sent to Tsirang court.