New Delhi, April 19: A neighbour allegedly raped and abused a five-year-old Delhi girl in an incident carrying shades of the December 16 bus rape, setting off public fury that led to ministers being heckled and a police officer slapping and injuring a woman protester.
A candle and a 200ml bottle were found inside the victim and she is critical, said doctors at Swami Dayanand Hospital where the girl was taken after being rescued yesterday, four days after disappearing from home. Under pressure from protesters, she was shifted to AIIMS this evening.
Her father accused the police of not trying hard enough to find his daughter after she went missing on Sunday, and then refusing to register an FIR initially yesterday and offering the family Rs 2,000 to withdraw the complaint.
The police, who have standing instructions — renewed after the bus gang rape — to register FIRs on all rape complaints, denied the allegations.
“When I went to lodge an FIR, the police refused to register the case. They told me to be happy that my daughter was alive,” said her father, who lives with his family on the first floor of a five-storey tenement at Gandhi Nagar, east Delhi.
The accused, a day labourer in his late 20s who has gone into hiding, had rented a ground-floor room in the same building eight days ago. Yesterday, the girl’s parents heard moans from the ground floor, broke the door open and found the injured girl in an otherwise empty room.
“She went out to play (on Sunday) and was kidnapped,” the victim’s mother said. “The man then locked her up in his room and raped her. I want justice from the government.”
Police data show that 90 per cent of rapes are committed by people known to the victim.
Public anger erupted today when Congress leaders queued up to visit the girl at Swami Dayanand Hospital. Delhi health minister A.K. Walia was heckled by women protesters who jostled with the police to try and get near him. During the heated exchanges, assistant commissioner B.S. Ahlawat slapped one of the protesters three times, leaving her with a bleeding ear. He has been suspended.
“We regret this unfortunate act and the misconduct by B.S. Ahlawat, who was seen on camera. He has been placed under suspension and a departmental inquiry has been ordered,” police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.
The protesters heckled Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit outside the hospital and prevented minister Kiran Walia from leaving her car. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who had a sinus operation today, did not come to meet the girl.
The rape charges have kicked off a Congress-BJP battle. The Delhi government had yesterday published the slogan “Dildaar (generous) Delhi”; BJP leader Vijay Goel mocked it today saying the slogan should have read “Balatkaar (rape) Delhi”.
Workers of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party turned out in large numbers in front of the hospital.
In a letter to Sheila Dikshit, AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai alleged the incident had exposed the administration’s “inhuman” attitude towards the common citizen.
Their former India Against Corruption colleague Kiran Bedi tweeted: “Delhi police back in the dock over its response to child rape case. Unable to win the trust of the people. Who is responsible? Leadership!”
