Rape survivor from Nepal handed over to mother after DNA test

RUDRAPUR: A 19-year-old woman, who was allegedly raped in 2018 and was living in a shelter home in Almora, has been handed over to her mother after a DNA test to ascertain her parentage as two families from Nepal claimed her to be their daughter.

District probation officer Rajeev Nayan Tiwari said they conducted the test after getting permission from a court and handed over the woman to her mother on Thursday.

A distant relative, who had brought her to Kumaon when she was 4 to 5, allegedly raped the woman in Nainital when she was 15. Police arrested the accused and sent him to jail. The woman was a minor at the time of the crime and Nanital’s Child Welfare Committee sent her to the shelter home in Almora.

Tiwari said since she was abducted when she was a child, she failed to recognise her real parents. “[We] approached police and the court for conducting DNA tests…” He added after getting the DNA report, they contacted the real parents through a Nepalese NGO Maiti. “All legal and other formalities were carried out.”

Manju Upadhaya, the in-charge of the shelter home, said the NGO played a crucial role.