Rohtak police taking legal advice to ‘apprehend’ 13-year-old rape victim

ROHTAK: The Rohtak Police on Saturday said they were taking legal advice to see if they need to apprehend a 13-year-old rape victim for abandoning her newborn girl on a road. Old Sabzi Mandi police station SHO Rajesh Kumar said they had booked the rape victim under Section 317 (abandonment of child by parent) after the newborn girl was found near a roadside ditch on July 16.

“The FIR under Section 317 was registered before we traced the mother of the girl. Now, the accused in the case has turned out to be a rape victim herself. But we are taking legal advice and after getting approval from legal experts we may nab her,” Kumar said.

The 13-year-old is currently admitted to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, where she is receiving counselling from the child welfare committee. As per what she has revealed so far, she was sexually assaulted by her neighbour Nazim. The police have booked him under Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and launched a hunt to nab him.

The girl also revealed that she was herself not aware of her pregnancy. “Her mother asked her one day about the increasing size of her tummy, but no one suspected she was pregnant,” Kumar said, as per what the girl and her family told them.

She further said on July 16, she experienced a throbbing pain in her stomach for which she went into the bathroom. To her shock, she gave birth to a baby girl. “She panicked and didn’t know what to do. Without telling anyone, she went out and left her newborn girl near roadside ditch. She then came back home and cleaned herself and slept,” Kumar said.

The police said the parents of the 13-year-old girl were shocked when they got to know about the entire episode.