Gritty Bangalore dad wages a lone battle

It is with a heavy heart that the DJ Halli man is waging a lone battle to make the city safe for children.

His eight-year-old son was sodomised by an unidentified man on Thursday. The boy’s father, a professor, has been trying to bring the paedophile to book.

The professor had earlier decided to make the incident public at a time when families, fearing social stigma, hushed up such atrocities committed against their children.

The father faced opposition even as his child, scared and battered, was narrating him the three-hour-long ordeal the he had undergone in a secluded space opposite the Ambedkar Medical College.

Relatives and neighbours, who had gathered at the professor’s house, advised him against going to the police.  “Being a professor, if I try to hide such a serious crime committed against an innocent child, what will happen to other children,” he asked.

The police initially refused to file the complaint, since they felt that the child – with visible bruises and cuts on his body – was lying. Later, they registered a case.

The professor, on Tuesday, pretended as if every thing was normal. He had taken the boy to a cinema, and sent him to school as usual. But he has been putting on a brave face, in a desperate bid to hide the pain and anger. At times, his efforts to cover up the emotions of a father failed.

“It is difficult to pretend to be normal with so much pain within me. But if I break down, who will give courage to my wife, our three children and elder members of the family? We have been residing in this locality for the past 20 years. My wife was never so scared to step out of our house before. We have learnt a lesson the hard way. But we don’t want any other child to fall victim to such perverts,” he said.

Though he had lodged a complaint with the police, the professor has been trying to track down the sex fiend himself. He went around with his son, in the hope of finding the man and handing him over to the law.

Meanwhile, he had told his children what to do in a similar situation. “I told them to scream loudly if a stranger approaches them on the streets,” the professor said.

A pause later, he added: “But this stranger made my son believe him. He is the most innocent of my three children and that is why he got trapped.”