Delhi rape victim battles for life; accused identified, 3 cops suspended

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The shocking rape case of a five-year-old girl child in Delhi has shamed the nation once again. Amidst raging protests, the Delhi police on Friday said they have identified the person allegedly involved in the rape of the girl. "The accused has been identified and a team is already on its way to arrest him," Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told a news agency. The accused, Manoj, is a tailor and was arrested in 2010 in a trespass case filed by his family which had disowned him. The Delhi Police have slapped attempt to murder section against the accused. Prabhakar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), told reporters on Friday night that they have slapped Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (a) (rape), 362-A (kidnapping) among others of IPC and 6 and 9 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012. Police sources said the accused has been identified as Manoj, who hails from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and had taken the room in a building in Gandhi Nagar area on rent eight days ago. The girl was rescued from the room on the ground floor of the building where the victim and her family stayed. As news of the beastly attack on the girl came out, a "deeply disturbed" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the "shameful incident" has "once again reiterated the need for society to look deep within and work to root out the evil of rape and other such crimes from our midst". The news once again bought angry protesters out of their homes. Many massed at the hospital where the girl was warded since Wednesday after her family rescued her from the house of her abductor in Gandhi Nagar in East Delhi. When the traumatised girl was on Friday evening shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) from Swami Dayanand Hospital for better medical attention, demonstrators gathered there too and shouted slogans against police and demanded death for the accused. Delhi, described as India`s "rape capital" has seen over 390 rapes cases in three months as compared to 152 cases in the corresponding period last year. A doctor said he and his colleagues had never seen such a brutal rape. They said a bottle and pieces of candle were found thrust into the private parts of the girl. "We found a 200 ml bottle and two or three pieces of candle inserted into her private parts. This is the first time I have seen such barbarism," said RK Bansal, medical superintendent, Swami Dayanand Hospital. "There were injuries on her lips, cheeks, arms and anus area, and bruise marks on her neck, suggesting that attempts were made to strangle her. The blood pressure was way below normal," the doctor said. The girl also had fever when she was admitted - and was in severe trauma. Doctors at AIIMS said the girl is "in a stable condition" and is being examined by a team of specialists. Anger against Delhi Police mounted after the girl`s father, a mason, said they failed to even register his complaint when his daughter went missing. "We went to police to register a FIR (First Information Report) but they refused. They never tried to find her, and instead drove us away," said the distraught man. He said when the family finally found the girl Wednesday morning after hearing her screams, a policeman offered the family Rs 2,000 to keep mum. "Police told us not to highlight the issue in the media and gave us Rs 2,000 as `kharcha-pani`," said the father, adding the police told them to "thank god that his daughter was alive". Meanwhile, two Delhi Police officials were suspended for "misbehaving" with the family of the five-year-old rape victim, while an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) was suspended for slapping a girl protestor, said police on Friday. "Dharampal Singh, SHO (station house officer) of Gandhi Nagar police station where the victim`s missing person`s report was registered on April 15, and the initial investigating officer of the case Mahavir Singh, a sub-inspector (SI), were suspended with immediate effect Friday," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Prabhakar. "Apart from the vigilance inquiry, a departmental inquiry has also been ordered against the SHO and the SI. The inquiry will ascertain the allegation of the victim`s family that the officials misbehaved with them when they approached Gandhi Nagar police station to register the case," he said. "Their roles in not handling the case properly will also be probed," Prabhakar said. The joint commissioner of Delhi Police (vigilance) has been asked to conduct an inquiry and submit a report within 24 hours to the Delhi police commissioner. An ACP was on Friday suspended for slapping a 17-year-old girl protester, who was trying to meet the five-year-old rape victim at a hospital here. ACP Bani Singh Ahlawat, posted at Khajuri Khas area of East Delhi, was suspended with immediate effect for slapping and pushing Beenu Rawat, a class 12 student, said a senior police officer. Rawat, a resident of East Delhi`s Shahdara, was trying to enter the emergency ward of the Swami Dayanand Hospital when she was assaulted by the ACP. "Blood was oozing from Rawat`s ear after the assault," said a police officer. The five-year-old girl was abducted on April 15 and kept hostage for two days without food and water in a flat owned by the 25-year-old attacker Manoj Kumar. He lived on the ground floor of the building in East Delhi`s Gandhi Nagar, in which the victim`s family also stayed, police said. The girl, who was raped repeatedly, was rescued when members of her family heard her screams on Wednesday evening, police said. (With Agency inputs)