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BATHINDA: A 13-year-old boy, studying in Class VIII, lured a four-year-old girl playing outside her house in a Bathinda village on Thursday evening and raped her. The girl, who had joined nursery classes a few days back, was hospitalized and a medical examination on her has confirmed rape .

Police have booked the minor boy for rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

On being caught by the girl’s mother, the boy took some poisonous substance and was admitted to a private hospital, where he has been declared out of danger.

The girl’s mother has told police that the child was playing outside her house on Thursday evening but did not come home till quite late. Worried, she went looking for her. “During the search, I entered a house in the neighbourhood and was stunned to see my daughter and the boy naked. My child was bleeding and crying,” the mother said in her complaint, adding that she took her daughter home and called her husband, a labourer. After her husband came home, they approached the village sarpanch and took the girl to a hospital.

The mother further told police that the boy was alone at his home as his parents, both labourers, were away at work. He took some poisonous substance soon after he was caught and was taken to a nearby town for treatment by his parents on their return. The sarpanch confirmed that the girl’s medical report had established rape, following which a police complaint was filed.

Bathinda SSP Nanak Singh said, “As per the complaint of the girl’s mother, a case of rape under Section 376 of the IPC and under the POCSO Act has been registered against the boy, who is admitted in hospital... Once he is discharged, police will take him into custody and send him to a juvenile home.”

