Front Page

Brutal assault on four-year-old Delhi girls

Staff Reporter

Police hunting for 22-year-old accused who vanished after the crime

NEW DELHI: In a crime most hideous, two four-year-old girls were criminally assaulted allegedly by a neighbour in the Capital's Tilak Nagar area on Monday evening. The 22-year-old accused is absconding.

The young victims are cousins and have been admitted to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital where the condition of one of them is stated to be serious.

According to the police, accused Vikram lured four children, three of them girls, to his house from a nearby park promising them chocolates and sweets. He then took them to the first floor of the four-storey building and allegedly assaulted two of them. He also made a vain attempt to criminally assault the third girl, said the police.

"On hearing their screams, a woman tenant on the third floor came down to enquire. Vikram told her that he was giving tuition to the children and had slapped them. Not satisfied with the reply, the woman reported the matter to Vikram's sister. The sister too got the same reply from Vikram who refused to open the door. The two did not pursue the matter further and went back. The accused freed the children around 9 p.m.," said a police officer.

The father of one of the victims, who was searching for the children after they went missing from the park, saw the four coming down the stairs. "The frocks of two of the girls were stained with blood. The accused had poured buckets of water over them to remove the bloodstains. The girls later told us they were assaulted by three or four men," said the father.

Vikram, a tailor by profession, allegedly threatened to immolate the children and dared the victims' families to report the matter to the police.

At the time of the incident, Vikram's parents were away attending a marriage ceremony. The matter was reported to the police and the girls were taken to hospital around 10 p.m.

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Chief Medical Officer Dhananjaya Kumar said: "Both girls were operated upon and bear serious injuries... . One of them has been bitten on the cheek. The condition of the other girl is still serious, though she recognises her parents and talks passively. We are awaiting the forensic reports to confirm criminal assault."

Alleging inaction on the part of the police, the distraught father said the cops turned up an hour after the first phone call was made. "We made the first call at 9 p.m. but no one turned up. Half-an-hour later one of my neighbours, a retired CRPF constable, called them up again and finally the police arrived at 10 p.m. Had they come on time, the accused would not have escaped," he said.

The police have set up four teams to look for the culprit.

On Tuesday the local residents protested outside the Khayala police post alleging police inaction.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu