delhi

Updated: Oct 11, 2015 15:14 IST

A four-year-old girl is fighting for life at Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital after being brutally raped and left for dead — a horror that all too routinely brings back memories of the 2012 Delhi gang rape-murder.

The child was found “unconscious, naked and bleeding” on the tracks close to her house in northwest Delhi’s Keshav Puram on Friday evening. Doctors at Safdarjung, where she was brought later that night on the reference of a local hospital, said on Saturday that she had suffered “serious injuries” all over her body while her genital area was particularly “damaged” and required surgical repair. She was currently in the intensive care unit.

Calling her condition “horrific”, Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted, “Visited the little girl, her condition cannot be described. Horrific… Her parents are extremely poor. When will this heinous crime stop in Delhi?”’

Police have registered a rape case but are yet to make any arrests. Family members suspect the attacker may have been among several men drinking at a local liquor shop.

“There are a few liquor shops where people gather in the evening… The other children don’t remember how she went missing from outside her house. The place where she was found, injured and without clothes, is right behind the liquor shop,” said a neighbour.

Maliwal tweeted, “In 2014, only 9 accused were convicted in Delhi in crime against women. Can you imagine!” — her words a grim reminder that women remain as unsafe in Delhi as they did three years ago, when the gang rape of a physiotherapist on a moving bus caused nationwide outrage and led to stricter laws for such crimes.

Visited the little girl, her condition cant be described. Horrific. Her parents are extremely poor. When will this heinous crime stop in Del — Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) October 10, 2015

In 2014, only 9 accused were convicted in Delhi in crime against women. Can you imagine! Tabhi to Delhi mei kisi ko darr nai hai. — Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) October 10, 2015

This year, 1,557 rape cases were registered in the Capital till September 15.