The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has levied charges on the parents of the toddler from Kanduhulhudhoo island of Gaaf Alif atoll, who fell victim to sexual assault from her own family members.

PGO on Thursday revealed that the parents were charged under the Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sex Abuse Offenders, for deliberate failure to report sexual assault against a minor as well as section 414 of the Penal Code which states that a person commits an offense if, being a parent fails to protect the child from an offense stated under section 130 of the Penal Code.

The charges have since been forwarded to the Kanduhulhudhoo Magistrate Court.

The case of sexual assault against a toddler one year and nine months of age arose on 15 January and implicated in the case are the two-year-old’s 33-year-old father, 62-year-old grandfather Ibrahim Didi and 82-year-old great grandfather Hassan Moosa Didi. The father is accused of negligence in the case and the grandfather and great grandfather are accused of sexually assaulting her. The toddler’s mother was in capital city Malé due to health issues when this case emerged.

Posts circulating of social media revealed that the child’s maternal aunt had apparently attempted to take the two-year-old under care when her mother left, however, the father had refused. Her injuries and wounds were discovered after she told her aunt about pain in her private parts, upon which her aunt took her to the hospital and got her consulted with a doctor.

While sources report that the parents are drug users, police confirmed that they have criminal records.

The child’s father was however, released from police custody in mid-February.

Earlier, Hassan Moosa Didi and Ibrahim Didi was charged under the Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sex Abuse Offenders, article 15 (b) states that engaging in a sexual act with a child of a person’s family shall be punishable with imprisonment for a period between 20 years and 25 years.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has urged the relevant authorities for the perpetrators behind the inhumane acts to be brought before justice.

Several such cases of sexual assault against children have been unfolding since then and police, as well as the Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services have been facing backlash in inadequate measures taken to curb such cases from repeating. This even led to the resignation of Shidhatha Shareef, who has since been replaced by Aishath Mohamed Didi.