Minor raped in Delhi, battling for life

 

• Five-year-old was confined in a flat for three days

 

New Delhi, 19 April 2013 (DHNS): In a grim reminder of the December 16 gang-rape in the national capital, a five-year-old girl was raped and brutalised for three days in an east Delhi flat. She is battling for life at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

 

“Her condition is very critical, and the infection has spread to various parts of the body,” R K Bansal, medical superintendent of Swami Dayanand Hospital, where she was initially admitted, said on Friday.

 

“When the child was brought to hospital on Thursday, she was in trauma and severe pain. After giving anaesthesia, we clinically checked her. We found a 200 ml bottle and three pieces of candles inserted into her private parts.”

 

Hundreds of protesters led by Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party demonstrated outside the hospital, demanding better medical facilities for the victim. East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit and Health Minister A K Walia, who visited the minor at Swami Dayanand Hospital, were heckled by the demonstrators.

 

The girl was shifted to AIIMS in the evening. “I have never seen such a barbaric act,” Bansal said.

 

There were injuries in her private parts, lips and cheeks, besides marks on her neck, which suggested that the violator tried to strangle her. “She also has infection in her stomach as she might not have got food for the past few days,” said Bansal.

 

A special police team was formed to arrest the accused, identified as Manoj. “The accused has been identified and a police team has been sent to Muzaffarpur in Bihar to arrest him,” said Special Commissioner of Police Deepak Mishra.

 

The victim’s family has alleged that a policeman from the Gandhi Nagar police station tried to silence them with Rs 2,000. The family alleged that they were treated with insensitivity after they urged the police to trace the missing child.

 

The victim’s father, who works as a mason in Punjab, told reporters on Friday: “Last night a policeman came to our house and asked me to come out. He told me that nothing will happen by involving the public and advised that we should take care of the child and be with her. He also gave me Rs 2,000 and left.”

 

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), Prabhakar, refuted the allegation that the police were insensitive.  “The mother of the child, along with a relative, came to the police station and a case of kidnap was registered immediately. We immediately took the child to the hospital,” he added.

 

“The mother of the child, along with a relative, came to the police station and a case of kidnap was registered immediately. We immediately took the child to the hospital,” he added.

 

The child went missing on April 15 and was rescued on Wednesday morning from Manoj’s flat on the ground floor of the building where her family lived. She was abducted and kept hostage in the flat for three days without food and water, the police said.