Indian rape suspect who left 5yo victim to die arrested
The man suspected of the rape and torture of a 5-year-old Indian girl has been taken into custody by Delhi police. Protests erupted in the Indian capital demanding justice for the infant and accusing police of ‘apathy’ towards the case.
The victim was locked in a room for 48-hours after the rapist
fled, believing her to be dead.
The suspect, Manoj Kumar, 22, was detained by police in the village
of Bharthua on Saturday. Police believe he took refuge in the house
of his in-laws after he took a five-year-old girl hostage and raped
her on Monday.
"We have got Manoj's transit and he is being brought to Delhi
for interrogation. An initial interrogation of the accused and
Medico-Legal Case (MLC) report shows that he left the girl thinking
her dead. She was locked in the room for over 40 hours," said
Delhi’s deputy commissioner of police.
The five-year-old victim is currently in a critical condition in
a Delhi hospital after being found by a neighbor who heard her
cries when he passed the room on the ground floor of a building in
East Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar. Police say the victim’s family was
staying nearby.
In response to what has been branded as police apathy to the case,
protesters marched the streets of the Indian capital on Saturday.
Demonstrators gathered outside the house of Home Sushilkumar Shinde
and called for justice and the resignation of the police
commissioner.
Reports materialized that the police of Ghandi Nagar alleged tried
to pay the parents of the victim so that they would not pursue the
case.
A number of high-profile rape cases have forced Indian lawmakers
to scrutinize legislation regarding sexual violence against women
and girls. Last month the Indian parliament put through a bill
stipulating harsher punishments for rapists, including the death
sentence.
Public furor was sparked across the country in December after an
Indian student was gang raped and murdered on a Delhi bus. The case
drew massive protests calling for a change to rape legislation.
