One rape case is reported every four hours in Capital: Delhi Police data

NEW DELHI: A rape is reported from the city every four hours, data compiled by Delhi Police states.

Six years ago, the number of cases was less (see box). On an average two rape cases were reported from the city in 24 hours in 2012. The numbers have seen a meteoric rise over the years — from 706 cases in 2012 to 2,146 cases in 2017.

Less than forty-eight hours before the 11-year-old was raped by a hospital staff on Friday morning , another minor girl — a 7-year-old had been raped by a rag picker. The child in that case was playing outside her house when she was sexually assaulted by the man.

Over the last one and half month, there have been five rape cases of minors, all below the age of 12, registered by the Delhi Police. In at least three cases involving school students, the alleged rapist were found to be school employees.

Delhi police officers said they will start a drive across all schools to check if they have conducted a character verification of all their employees. “We will soon start a drive across all schools if they have complied with the government’s order to get all their school employees verified. We will take legal action against school authorities if we find that employees have not been verified,” said a senior police officer.

Swati Maliwal, chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, said there need to be a fear of the law in the society. “Every third or fourth day, the rape of a minor is being reported from the National Capital. It has been almost six months that a new law was passed for giving life in jail or death penalty to accused in these cases. But the implementation has been negligible. There is no deterrent.”

OVER THE LAST ONE AND HALF MONTH, THERE HAVE BEEN FIVE RAPE CASES OF MINORS, ALL BELOW THE AGE OF 12