in brief: more young girls attacked in india
Photo by Jorge Royan
Following the brutal torture and rape of a five year old girl in New Delhi barely a week ago, three six year old girls have been attacked, one murdered, in separate incidences in India.
The body of one girl, found bleeding last Thursday in the eastern state of Jharkhand, had been bound by her hands and feet and suffered serious injuries before being strangled to death. A post mortem concluded that the girl had been raped.
On the same day in New Delhi, another girl was found alive after being taken from her home on Tuesday evening by a neighbour. The girl was held captive for two days and repeatedly raped by the man, alleged by police to be 22 year old Manoj Kumar, later arrested in the far east of the country.
In the most recent case, a girl was found near a public toilet in the Badarpur area of Delhi on Friday. The young girl’s throat had been slit and she remains in a critical condition after surgery. Police are waiting on a medical report that will likely confirm that she was raped. The contractor of the public toilet has been arrested and 22 others were detained for questioning.
These attacks, along with several earlier in the year, and the high profile torture, rape and murder of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in December, have sparked widespread public anger and demonstrations in many Indian cities.
The apparent unwillingness of police to seriously investigate or effectively prosecute rape cases is the focus of much of the outrage. Protesters are also enraged by what is alleged to be common and widespread police brutality.
The family of the five year old girl raped in New Delhi claim that police initially refused to file an official investigation. The father of the victim has now identified a police officer he alleges offered him Rs 2000 (A$35) to stay quiet about the attack. The police officer is accused of telling the girl’s father to ‘thank god [his] daughter is alive’.
Three police officers have been suspended in relation to the case, including one who was filmed slapping a female student who was protesting against the violent attacks on women and young girls.
By Toby Newton
