A four-year-old girl was rushed to hospital with severe injuries after she was allegedly raped by a neighbour in Outer Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy on Sunday.
The accused, 30-year-old rickshaw puller Mohammad Junaid, was reportedly caught red-handed by the victim’s mother.
He was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sent to jail after being produced before a magistrate.
Police said he was in an inebriated condition when he committed the crime.
The girl’s father is a mason while her mother does odd jobs. It was around 3 p.m., when the parents were away, that the girl came out to play with her friends. An hour later, after the other children had gone home, Junaid approached the girl while she was playing on a swing. He lured her by offering snacks. “Junaid knows that my daughter likes soft drinks and Kurkure,” the victim’s mother said.
When the mother returned home around 5 p.m., she found her daughter missing. “While looking for her, I walked into an isolated area near our slum. I found Junaid with my daughter who was bleeding and covered in mud,” the mother alleged.
Though she tried to restrain him, Junaid pushed her away. The woman then raised an alarm after which locals nabbed him. He was thrashed and handed over to the police.
The girl was rushed to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini where her injuries had to be stitched up. She was not in a condition to speak, said her mother.
Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, who visited the victim at the hospital, said the girl had to be given anaesthesia for the pain.
“There were scratch marks all over her body, which speak of her ordeal. She was in shock when I met her,” said Ms. Maliwal. The injuries, however, are not life-threatening, doctors said.
The victim’s mother said: “The incident will leave a scar on her. If my daughter is not safe outside her own home, where can I expect her to be safe.”
