Click to play videoNew Delhi: Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu is in a state of shock. An HIV-positive man, Ayyappan, allegedly raped two minor girls aged 11 and 15 over the past one-and-a-half years. The incident came to light when the girls began to fall sick frequently.
Forty-eight-old Ayappan was arrested on Saturday following complaints from the parents of the girls and the local panchayat president that he had sexually abused the minors.
When doctors at the AIDS awareness centre in Virudhanagar tested the girls for HIV, both confirmed positive for the virus.
“The girls have been ill for one-and-a-half years now and when the medicines failed to have any affect on them, the doctor suggested blood tests and we got to know they were HIV positive,” the girls’ grandmother Pechiyammal said.
Family members say Ayappan, a distant relative of the girls, was seeking revenge.
Ayyappan's sister Velankanni has also been arrested for helping him befriend the girls with a “malafide intention,” police said.
“My wife won the panchayat elections against Ayyapan's sister and she has sought revenge on us in this way,” Pechiyammal’s husband Kuzhuchamy said.
Ayappan's second wife Krishnammal, whom he married after the death of his first wife, died 14 years ago due to HIV virus.
The police have arrested and charged the brother-sister duo with rape and attempt to murder. But in this apparent family dispute, there's little justice the innocent girls can expect.
(With inputs from Hari in Madurai and Pratibha in Chennai)
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