New Delhi/Patna, April 21: Delhi police have launched a manhunt for a second suspect in the rape and mutilation of a five-year-old girl, while Manoj Kumar Sah — the prime suspect — was today sent to judicial custody till May 4.
Earlier in the day, the police had said Sah would not be produced in court today but later he was brought before duty magistrate Sanjay Kumar who sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
Police sources said Sah had agreed for a test identification parade. “In the fairness of investigation, we decided to produce the accused in a court today itself to facilitate a test identification parade,” a senior police officer said.
Sah, 22, was arrested from his in-law’s place in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, after he fled from the capital on April 15 thinking the girl was dead. He was flown to Delhi last evening.
The girl was rescued from Sah’s ground floor rented accommodation in the same building where the victim stayed in east Delhi’s Gandhinagar around 40 hours after her disappearance.
Doctors treating the girl at AIIMS said she was “gradually” improving but it will be at least two weeks before she is discharged. The child is responding well to antibiotics, Dr D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of AIIMS, said.
The rape of the five-year-old in New Delhi and arrival of police teams from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab in the state in search of rape accused (see Page 4) has spurred parents in Patna to take extra measures to ensure the safety of their children.
Boring Road resident Pragya Mishra has made her daughter Sakhsi, 6, memorise her and her husband Raj’s cellphone numbers. “She knows my number and her father’s as well as our address. I have also made her aware of a ‘good touch’ and a ‘bad touch’,” said the concerned mother.
She added: “Sakshi knows that if anyone touches her private parts, it is a ‘bad touch’ and she should immediately raise an alarm. I learnt it from the Satyamev Jayate. Earlier, I had not taken it seriously, but after the rape of a five-year-old, I’m quite concerned.”
In the popular TV show, where Aamir Khan spreads social awareness, the actor who had played a teacher in Taare Zameen Par had conducted a workshop with kids to make them aware of sexual abuse and how to fight it.
Binda Singh, a clinical psychologist, said the recent rape has shocked parents. “People have understood that if they show even a little carelessness, this can happen to their child as well,” she said.
