Eight-year-old girl abducted, raped

nNEWDELHI: An eight-year-old girl sleeping next to her grandmother outside their home in north Delhi was kidnapped and raped in the early hours of Friday, the Delhi Police said on Sunday after using the survivor’s description of the suspect to nab a street vendor.

The suspect had allegedly gone to visit the crime spot on Saturday morning to observe the nature of the probe when the police team noticed him and nabbed him.

“The survivor had given us an accurate description of his beard colour, hair style and age which helped us catch him after 16 hours of investigation,” said a senior police investigator who didn’t want to be identified.

The suspect, 40-year-old Sudama, allegedly told the police that he “lost control of his senses” after getting drunk that night. “We are investigating whether he targeted more children, although no other case has come up so far,” said the officer.

The girl lives with her grandmother and uncle in a slum in north Delhi. “Around 2 am on Friday, she was sleeping with her grandmother on a cot outside their house when Sudama gagged her and took her away behind a religious place in the neighbourhood,” said the officer.

He left the crime scene after allegedly raping her even as the girl’s family woke up to find her missing. They had just begun their search when they found her walking back.

“They didn’t think too much of her disappearance at that time, but in the morning her grandmother found her bleeding,” said the officer.

The child was taken to Sucheta Kripalani Hospital where the doctors noticed sexually assault and alerted the police. “The child could only speak Marathi. So, we sought help from another girl in the neighbourhood to get a description of the suspect,” the officer said.

The child described the suspect as a man with a salt and pepper coloured beard, long hair with middle parting. “We rounded up about 70 suspects, but the survivor did not confirm the photographs of any of them,” said the officer.

But local enquiry revealed that a man of that description would frequently visit a tea shop in the neighbourhood. But the suspect allegedly turned up near the crime spot where a police team was carrying out the probe on Saturday morning. “One of our officers noticed him and found his appearance similar to that of the description provided by the survivor,” said the officer.

Seeing the police approach him, the suspect allege began to run, but was chased and caught.