india

Updated: Mar 17, 2019 00:28 IST

A four-year-old girl was raped allegedly by the father of her tutor in west Delhi on Friday. The 52-year-old man was arrested on Saturday, police said.

The girl was severely wounded and is currently undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit of a hospital in west Delhi, police said. Her condition is out of danger, her family said.

Deputy commissioner of police (west) Monika Bhardwaj said that the suspect was arrested, after a case of rape under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered at the Punjabi Bagh police station. “The first information report (FIR) was registered based on a complaint by the girl’s mother,” said Bhardwaj.

Investigators, who did not wish to be identified, said the girl’s medical examination confirmed that she was raped.

The girl’s family told police in their complaint that they suspect that the man had been allegedly sexually assaulting her for the past four-five days. They said that one of the girl’s school teachers told them that she appeared to be “disturbed” and remained “silent” in the classroom the past few days, according to the FIR.

“My daughter is terrified and has not been able to tell us exactly what happened there [the tutor’s home],” the mother told police .

In the complaint, the family members said that the matter came to their notice around 7.30pm on Friday, when the girl was dropped home by the tutor and she was crying profusely and appeared wounded.

The girl’s family told police that they originally rushed her to a private hospital, but they were forced to move her to a government hospital as they did not have the money required for her treatment. Police said the girl’s family alleged that her treatment was delayed by “two-three hours” due to the transfer.

The girl’s mother alleged that when she called the police on Friday night, officials were not prompt to register the case. She said that a woman sub-inspector, who had come to attend the call, asked her to call in the morning to procure the copies of the medical examination report and the FIR.

“I tried contacting her in the morning but her phone was switched off. I then went to the police station but the police personnel were non-committal about registering the case and arresting the culprit... I sought help from the members of an NGO and an FIR was filed and the man arrested only when the NGO put pressure on the local police,” the mother alleged.

Police said they could only arrest the man after due procedure. “The girl’s family shifted the child to the government hospital from the private hospital. This shifting process took some time and delayed the recording of girl’s mother’s statement. It was recorded around 5am Saturday after which we registered the FIR. We could arrest him only after an FIR is registered,” said DCP Bhardwaj said.