Minor raped in care centre recovers from Covid-19; security stepped up

Two suspects are in judicial custody, and are being treated for Covid at a govt hospital

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A police case has been registered and the matter is being investigated. The culprit should receive strictest punishment.

nNEW DELHI: A 14-year-old Covidpositive girl who was allegedly raped at the 10,000-bed Covid Care Centre in south Delhi’s Chhatarpur by a 19-year-old patient housed at the facility has recovered from the disease, police said on Friday.

“The survivor’s Covid test results returned negative on Thursday evening,” said a police investigator who did not want to be identified.

Two suspects, who were arrested and are in judicial custody, are at a government hospital for treatment. The second man is the suspect’s friend who filmed the crime on his mobile phone. Both are Covid-postive.

“Though they have no symptoms now, their test results are yet to arrive. When they recover, we will approach court to seek their custody for interrogation,” the officer said, adding the suspects are being guarded by personnel of Delhi Police’s Third Battalion, which mans prisoners outside jail premises.

The suspect was admitted at facility around the same time the girl was brought -- about a week before the alleged crime happened on the night of July 15.

The girl and the 19-year-old had got acquainted with each other during their stay at the centre, police said. He allegedly called her near the washroom on the pretext of speaking to her and allegedly committed the crime, police had said on Thursday.

His 20-year-old friend allegedly stood guard and recorded the crime on his mobile phone.

During a brief interrogation, the suspect “admitted” to raping the girl child, the investigator

ARVIND KEJRIWAL, Delhi CM

cited above said.

The suspects were sent to judicial custody and since they were infected, the police did not get a chance to interrogate them any further.

“We seized the mobile phone of the other suspect and sent it to a forensic laboratory for recovery of the alleged video as we suspect he deleted it when the crime was revealed,” the investigator said.

Commenting on the crime,

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said, “It is an unfortunate incident. A police case has been registered and the matter is being investigated. The culprit should receive strictest punishment.”

The survivor’s statement was recorded in the physical presence of a magistrate on Friday. “Since she was infected with coronavirus all this while, we didn’t have a chance to record her statement in court. On Friday, her mother was with her while she recorded her statement, which was consistent with her earlier allegation,” the officer said.

After legal requirements, she was sent home with her mother who works as a domestic help.

The child is yet to be counselled by NGOS, a mandatory requirement to help survivors heal with mental trauma. “Now that she has recovered, we have requested a counsellor to help her,” the officer said.

The survivor reported the crime on July 16 morning to an attendant of the care centre. Of the 10,200 beds at the facility -billed as the largest Covid care centre in India -- only about 250 are currently occupied.

Since it is a huge facility with a negligible occupancy, large spaces are unmanned. The Indo-tibetan Border Police, which is overseeing security as well as treatment of patients there, had initially planned to deploy 1,000 of its personnel for security purposes.

But with very few patients at the centre, only about 100 of them are working in shifts in the security department.

The ITBP said they have stepped up security and are investigating if there were any lapses on the part of its personnel.