Minor rape victim left unattended for 12 hours in Gurgaon hospital

GURGAON: The Civil Hospital in Gurgaon has come under fire from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for the alleged negligence in attending to a minor victim of rape. The victim had allegedly not received first-aid even after 12 hours of being brought to the district hospital on Monday evening.

An FIR of rape was filed and the accused was arrested on Wednesday.

The matter of alleged negligence came to light on Tuesday afternoon when the CWC chief reached the hospital to check on the victim, a student of class 1 at a government hospital, after receiving a call from the police.

“The girl was badly wounded. She had suffered injuries to her private parts and was bleeding, but she was wrapped in a dirty shawl that was stinking and could have led to infections. I immediately called the doctors to attend to her,” CWC chairperson Shakuntala Dhull said, adding that the 13-year-old’s mother said her daughter, who was raped by her neighbour on Monday afternoon, was not even given firstaid.

However, chief medical officer Dr BK Rajora said he was not aware that any such case was reported at the hospital and would check with the doctors. Later, neither did he take calls nor respond to messages for comment on the matter.

Dhull said she would write to the chief medical officer about the negligence of the doctor on duty and seek action against him. “Such victims need urgent attention,” she said.

The incident came to light late on Monday evening when the girl’s mother returned home and found the child limping.

The mother, who is a single parent and works as a cook in the residential societies nearby, had returned home after cooking lunch.

When the mother questioned the girl about what had happened, the girl remained silent, but later started crying.

Thinking that she was injured, the mother and her aunt took the girl to a private hospital, where they were told that girl had been raped and that she should be taken to the Civil Hospital, where doctors called the police.

“She did not complain of pain as the accused had threatened that he would kill her mother if she told anybody. She narrated the incident only after the matter was reported to the police,” Dhull said.

“We immediately registered a case of rape under relevant sections. She has now been referred to the Safdarjung Hospital and is stable,” Sadar station house officer Sandeep Kumar said.

The police arrested 35-year-old accused from his residence on Tuesday after the case was registered at the Sadar police station.

The accused is a daily wage worker and hails from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. He has confessed to the crime, police said. The district court remanded the accused to 14 days in judicial custody, on Wednesday.

Victim’s mother said the incident was the result of her rebuffing the accused’s sexual advances. “Last year, the accused had said he would take revenge as I was not friendly with him and, despite several advances made by him, I ignored him. I had never thought he would harm my daughter,” she said.