An eight-year-old girl, who was abducted and raped a few yards away from her house in Hennur, is currently undergoing treatment at the Vani Vilas Hospital.
The victim, who went to a nearby pharmacist to buy medicine for her mother, was abducted on Tuesday evening, a police source said. When she did not return, her worried mother went in search of her and found her lying traumatised and bleeding at a construction site.
Passersby helped her rush the child to hospital even as she called her husband over phone. Angry residents launched a massive manhunt for the culprit and nabbed a suspect, identified as Waseem, who they thought was behaving suspiciously. They thrashed him before handing him over to the police, who said he is only a suspect and the case is being investigated.
The victim’s uncle, Mohammed Abbas, said the child had identified him from a photograph. The victim also told The Hindu Waseem had dragged her to the construction site and had beaten her into submission.
Further trauma awaited the child and her family when they had to run between hospitals. Initially, she was taken to the Ambedkar Medical College, where after two hours she was discharged because the hospital claimed it lacked proper facilities to treat rape victims. She was then taken to Bowring at around 10.30 p.m. After a few hours, around 2.30 a.m., the family was advised to shift her to Vani Vilas Hospital where she finally received proper care. Till then, her family said, she was bleeding and in agony.