New Delhi, Feb 06: The National Commission for Women (NCW) today pointed to the serious lapses in police investigation in the rape case involving a three-month-old baby of Khiri district of Uttar Pradesh. In its probe report, submitted by NCW chairperson Poornima Advani to the Central and the state governments, the commission observed that the police had failed to apply suitable sections of the penal code to punish the accused. Despite injuries to internal organs, a charge of 'attempt to rape' was only applied, it said, which was ''terribly wrong''.

Dr Advani said that the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act should have been slapped too, as the child would have been suitably compensated.
The fact that the child had been kidnapped from the parents, had not been taken cognizance of by the police, she pointed out.
Referring to the case, wherein the baby was raped in December last year by one Kailash, who wanted to take revenge against her family due to a feud, she said this brings out the vulnerability of the girl children who are victimised in case of family disputes and are easy prey to anger and lust of men.
''As it is the girl was an unwanted child for the Dalit poverty-striken family, and now, for the sin of a perverse male, she will have to face so many more hardships, ''Dr Advani said, adding, in all probability, she would never have a normal anatomy necessary to bear a child.
The report has also pointed to the lapses on part of Lucknow's King George Medical College, where the rape victim was taken five days after the incident. The commission members, during their investigations, found her lying in an unhygienic environment at the KGMC, surrounded by five or six relatives. ''This was horrendous, as it made her more vulnerable to infection,'' she said, giving details of the report to mediapersons here.
''The KGMC should videograph the internal rupture for no amount of words would be able to bring before the court the actual picture of trauma,'' she observed.
''The actual sight is heart-wrenching and shocking,'' she noted. With NCW's efforts, the infant has now been shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Dr Advani said. She thanked Health Minister Sushma Swaraj for her cooperation in this matter.
Bureau Report