india

Updated: Apr 27, 2017 20:27 IST

A five-year-old girl, who was raped allegedly by two 15-year-old boys and left with grievous injuries, was not attended to by doctors for two days at a state-run hospital in Jharkhand’s steel city Jamshedpur only because police had not registered an FIR and delayed sending a requisition for medical examination to confirm rape.

The girl — the daughter of a vendor — was raped on April 21, following which her poor parents went to the Telco police station to lodge a complaint. But they alleged that instead of registering an FIR, police gave the child some painkillers and asked the family to go home.

With the girl bleeding profusely from her private parts, the worried parents took her to a private clinic where she underwent treatment for three days. However, as the girl’s condition worsened, the clinic referred her to the medical college hospital.

The parents took her to the state-run MGM Hospital on April 24 but the doctors, after examining her condition, suggested getting the FIR registered first and get a requisition from police for a medical examination to confirm rape.

Over the last two days, the hapless father, skipping his work, kept shuttling between the police station and the hospital to get the FIR registered, but to no avail. Neither police registered the FIR, nor did the doctors begin treatment.

The girl was left on pain killers at the hospital bed till local Congress leaders intervened on Thursday and pressurised police to register the FIR.

Around Thursday noon, the police station in-charge deputed an investigative officer (IO) who came to the hospital and registered an FIR after speaking to the girl. The doctors then began treatment.

“We went to hospital superintendent Ashok Kumar Singh, who said they were monitoring the child’s health and were giving her the requisite medicines. But he stressed that in order to confirm rape, they needed the FIR and requisition seeking medical examination. Sans FIR, the case would have got diluted and the victim would never get justice,” said Youth Congress leader Paritosh Singh, who helped the family.

The aggrieved father named the two accused boys as his neighbours and said they were “influential people”, alleging that police were “not interested at all in listening to our complaint”.

He also alleged that the accused sodomised his seven -year-old son around six months back, but his family refrained from approaching the authorities.

Superintendent of police (city) Prashant Anand, who met the father along with the Congress leaders, said action would be taken against the Telco police if negligence was established on their part.

Jamshedpur SSP Anup Mathew told HT, “We have suspended the officer on duty and have recommended action against the officer-in-charge for delay in registering the FIR.”

He said police will be “sensitive” to the case and would ensure that appropriate action is taken against the culprits, even though they are minors.