Baby girl of 14-year-old deaf and dumb rape victim dies of sepsis

A premature baby girl delivered by a 14-year-old hearing and speech impaired girl at Shaheed Babu Labh Singh Civil Hospital on August 7, who was allegedly raped by her neighbour at Kang Sabu village in Nakodar, died of sepsis in last week.

The baby girl remained admitted to Amritsar medical college for a week and was discharged, but her health deteriorated and she died on September 24 morning. The victim’s family called a local auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), Paramjeet Kaur, who is looking after the minor girl since the crime came to notice. Police officials were informed and the post-mortem was conducted.

Police also requested for DNA sample to match with that of the accused lodged in the jail. The baby was underweight at 1.5 kg and the mother was unable to feed her.

Paramjeet said when the child got ill, she took her to Jalandhar civil hospital and doctors referred to the Amritsar Medical College where she underwent treatment for a week where she recovered.

Nakodar deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Mukesh Kumar said they have received the information about the girl’s death after which we procured sample for DNA matching.

The 14-yer-old girl was allegedly raped by Paswan, a labour contractor, when her parents had gone to work. The father took the girl to a nearby doctor after the victim’s married sister, who had come to meet her parents, noticed her bulged abdomen. During her examination on April 26 this year, it was confirmed that she was over five-month pregnant. The daily wager filed a complaint with the police, which with the help of experts and family, got to know about the accused, who was living in the adjoining house.

The accused was arrested the next day based on the girl’s statement. A case under Sections 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 3, 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, was registered against the accused.