As anger and outrage swept through the national capital after the barbarous attack on a five-year-old girl in the Gandhi Nagar area of east Delhi and the police insensitivity in dealing with it, the Delhi police on Saturday (almost five days after the gruesome incident) arrested the accused from his in-laws’ house in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
Manoj Kumar (22), a casual worker in a garment factory in northeast Delhi, was apprehended from Chiknouta, in Muzaffarpur, in the early hours of Saturday and flown back to New Delhi from Patna in the evening. He is accused of abducting the minor on April 15 and viciously raping her and mutilating her genitals. A blade had been used to inflict cuts on several parts of the little girl’s body. An attempt had been made to strangle her and a 200 ml bottle and two candlesticks had been inserted into her genitals.
The girl, who was held captive in a house in Gandhi Nagar for two days with no food and water, was shifted to AIIMS Friday evening from Swami Dayanand Hospital in east Delhi.
The accused is also under the scanner in the murder of his sister-in-law in Bihar a few months ago, the Bihar police told their Delhi counterparts. The Delhi police had taken a neighbour of the accused with them to Bihar to identify him. The police has slapped IPC Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (a) (rape) and 362-A (kidnapping), among others, and Sections 6 and 9 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, against Kumar.
The Union ministry of home affairs on Saturday indicated that action can be taken against top officials of the Delhi police if they are found guilty of lapses in the probe. Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar is in a tight spot as the MHA is unhappy about lack of proper investigation of the gruesome rape case. Sources said Mr Shinde has been upset with the Delhi police chief over the prevailing law and order situation — there were repeated breaches of VIP security last week.
Protesters belonging to women’s organisations, BJP, CPI(M), CPI and AAP, and their student and youth outfits, clashed with the police when they tried to break through the barricades and enter police headquarters near ITO in central Delhi, where the main roads were closed to traffic. A protester was detained for trying to enter the police headquarters. Besides the police HQ, protests were also witnessed at the residences of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Mr Sushil-kumar Shinde, AIIMS and the Gandhinagar police station in east Delhi. Security was tightened at police HQ and AIIMS and at the residences of Mr Shinde and Ms Dikshit. Protesters also took to the streets near AIIMS.