JAIPUR: The story of Nirbhaya shook the collective conscience of the nation. But a similar gory incident — of an 11-year-old from Sikar in Rajasthan , who is battling for life at a hospital in Jaipur after a brutal gangrape — is yet to be told.

Six persons had abducted the girl on August 20 last year from a bus stand in Sikar town. They raped and thrashed her mercilessly before dumping her on the outskirts of the town. Her private parts, say doctors looking after her, had been so brutally vandalized that she had to undergo six major surgeries and eight minor surgical procedures. Even now, her condition is critical.

Doctors recall that when she was brought to JK Lon hospital in Jaipur from Sikar on August 22, they were appalled to see the barbaric manner in which she had been violated. She had a complete perineal tear -- there was no partition of muscles left between her vagina and rectum. Surgeons had to use a portion of her large intestine to create a new rectum as well as a colostomy surgery for creating an alternative channel for fecal passage. “In the last four-and-a-half months, we have tried our best to help her. Her condition had shocked each one of us,” says Dr LD Agarwal, who led the team of surgeons that performed the surgeries.

The girl, who is from Darbhanga in Bihar , is reportedly the youngest of seven children (six sisters and one brother). She came to Sikar with her mother after her father died. They were hoping that their relatives in Sikar would help them get work.

Now, after the incident, doctors say, the girl has virtually stopped reacting. “In the beginning, she was scared of injections but now she doesn’t react to anything. Her physical and mental ability is worsening gradually,” says a family member.

Despite the brazenness and brutality of the incident, what has shocked many is the apathy of the police. Till the day after the incident, family members allege, the police were refusing to even register a case. It was only because of pressure from locals who took out a protest march that the case was registered. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar also spoke to his Rajasthan counterpart Ashok Gehlot after which the administration swung into action.

Even though six people were arrested, two have already been granted bail as the police had allegedly booked them under milder sections of IPC. Her relatives say that the rapists are politically well-connected and that the police is going soft on them. They also allege that the actual culprits are still at large.