In a heart-rendering incident that recently came to light in Ghaziabad, a mother has been torturing her 10-year-old daughter to cover up her repeated rape by a male friend and also wanted to push her into prostitution, media reports said.

The man allegedly sexually abused the girl's 13-year-old brother as well.

According to police, unable to bear the torture, the child had left her home in Ghaziabad on Jan 20 and was found roaming the streets of Delhi.

She was handed over to the Delhi Police, who entrusted her to the care of the Child Welfare Committee. The girl's medical test revealed that she had been raped.

The child told the police that her father had died four years ago and since then they had been living with her maternal grandparents.

Last year, her mother had taken the siblings to her home in Ghaziabad. She was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her mother's friend, who had also sexually abused her 13-year-old brother. Her brother had left home due to the abuse.

The girl said she found out that her mother was involved in prostitution after her father's death and also wanted to push her into the trade when she got older.

The child's mother and her friend have been arrested, said an official from the Loni Border police station in Ghaziabad.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Loni) Bhaskar Sharma said, "The girl has identified her rapist as Raju, a resident of Delhi. The mother had not filed a missing complaint even after she went missing on January 20. The child said her mother and Raju would torture her to cover up the crime and would threaten her using pliers to make sure she did not tell anybody about it."

"A case was initially registered by the Delhi Police in January and then at the Loni Border Police Station on April 9. The girl was so scared of Raju that she had initially said she had been raped by her stepfather," he added.