Man rapes friend’s infant daughter in Delhi, held

New Delhi: On Children’s Day, the Capital woke up to the horrific news of a man raping a one-and-a-half-year-old baby girl, whom he was supposed to take care of. The incident was reported from south Delhi’s Shahpur Jat village on Monday afternoon. The girl is stable and currently recuperating in hospital.

“The accused, Santosh, was arrested from the area. He works in the housekeeping department of a hotel,” a police officer said.

According to the police, Santosh lived in the victim’s neighbourhood and was her father’s friend. Her parents left the accused at home so that he could look after the child. The parents told the police that they often asked the accused, identified as Santosh, to take care of their daughter in their absence. Her father said that one of his other friends stood on guard.

When the child’s mother reached home on Monday afternoon, she found the girl bleeding and crying. She then rushed her to hospital, where doctors told her that the child was sexually assaulted.

“My wife called me and told me to rush home. There was excessive bleeding. There was blood on my daughter’s undergarments, walls, and floor. The police told me that I should not report the matter to the media. My wife told me that my daughter had been behaving in a weird manner for the last 10 days or so. I don’t know whether the accused did it on earlier occasions,” said a weeping father.

Meanwhile, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal went to the hospital to meet the victim and demanded that of Home Minister Rajnath Singh meet the child as well. She also staged a protest outside Singh’s residence and demaned that the rape accused be hanged within six months. Maliwal and some other DCW members were detained and taken to the Mandir Marg police station, before being released.

Maliwal also took to the social media in order to express her anger and tweeted (sic): “1.5-year-old girl raped on Children’s Day, which was supposed to be the last day of my Satyagraha. I am speechless, devastated. The system failed to move, despite my efforts.”