A 50-year-old man in Odisha’s Koraput district has been arrested on charges of raping his 14-year-old daughter for more than a year, officials said on Friday.

Police said the accused was arrested on Thursday evening after being charged under sections 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and secti+on 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012.

They said the accused had been raping his elder daughter studying in Class 9 but his wife did not know about it.

“The man also used to beat his wife regularly after getting intoxicated. A few days ago, when his wife had left the house in a huff, he again sexually assaulted his elder daughter,” said Sunabeda sub-divisional police officer Niranjan Behera.

“However, the younger daughter saw and revealed it to her mother following which she lodged a complaint,” Behera said.

Police said the accused thrashed his younger daughter when she threatened to reveal the incident.

The accused and his daughter were medically examined.

According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, 1427 cases of rape of minors were registered under Sections 4 and 6 of Pocso Act and Section 376 of IPC in 2018, while 1431 children were victims of a sexual offence.

NCRB’s report said Odisha recorded the maximum cases of child pornography in the country in 2018 with 333 cases followed by 177 in Bihar.

To deal with rising crimes against children, Odisha would start 24 courts that would exclusively hear sexual offence cases against children under Pocso Act.

Odisha police did an analysis of the sexual assaults on children two years ago, which revealed that in 92.5% of the cases, the victims knew their assaulters.

It is very challenging and extremely difficult for police to prevent such occurrences, police officials said.

To raise awareness about rising sexual assaults on children and the importance of reporting and preventing such cases, Odisha police in 2018 had started ‘Paree Pain Kathatiye’ (a word for the little angel.

Vehicles called Paree Express were sent out to all the 30 districts of the state for a fortnight to educate people on the issue.