Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

CHANDIGARH: The number of sexual assaults on women in Haryana in the last three days rose to five. Four of the girls were minors. In the latest crime, a three-and-a-half-year old girl was brutally raped by a juvenile in a residential colony in Hisar on Tuesday.

The crime came to light when the girl, who had gone missing, returned home crying in pain. Her clothes were blood stained. Her mother rushed her to a private hospital where she was medically examined. “The boy was arrested and was sent to the juvenile home in Ambala on Tuesday,” said Saroj Rani, station house officer (SHO) of Hisar women police station.

In another assault, a youth raped a student of class IX in a village falling under the Sonipat Sadar police station on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar met BJP national president Amit Shah on Wednesday.

An official at the chief minister’s office said the meeting with Shah was scheduled beforehand mainly on organisational issues and to discuss the visit of the BJP chief to Jind on February 15. "The CM reached on Tuesday and held meeting with other leaders on organisational issues. The meeting in Delhi was planned when Shah had gone to Haryana for three days recently," the official said. He added that the law and order issue in the recent cases was being “handled promptly”.

Sources said that before leaving for Shah’s office, Khattar had an interaction with a team of police officers, including inspector-general of police (CID) Anil Kumar Rao.

The officials updated him about the status of current cases along with comparative figures of cases registered during the Congress regime between 2012 and 2014. Later, interacting with the media in New Delhi, Khattar expressed his concern about the recent cases of crime against women.

“I am hurt at the cases of rape. We will not spare even a single accused and all those involved in the cases will be behind bars. I request the opposition parties not to resort to politics on these crimes,” he said.

Khattar elaborated on the measures taken by his government to curb crime against women. “Systems have been stepped up and we have changed officers, even up to the IG level. Such cases of crime against women have occurred in the past as well. I will request the opposition not to politicise these,” said Khattar.

In Chandigarh, the opposition parties continued to attack both BJP and Khattar. A joint delegation of the Mahila Congress headed by its president Sushmita Dev and former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda met governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and sought action against the Khattar government.

