Four-year-old raped by neighbour in Barola

NOIDA: A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 24-year-old family friend in Barola village in Noida. The police have arrested the accused and sent to judicial custody after producing him in court.

The accused, identified as Prem Deep (24), is a labourer from Banda in Uttar Pradesh. He has been living in a rented accomodation the same building for the last six months. The child used to call him 'uncle'.

The child's father said the crime occured on Thursday evening, when the girl was alone at home. "She was alone at home on Thursday evening when Deep came returned from work. On finding the girl alone, he locked the house and sexually assaulted her," he said.

The father said that when he and his wife came back home, they found the girl sitting in a corner and crying inconsolably. "When we asked her, she narrated the ordeal to us. We immediately rushed her to the hospital, where the doctors confirmed rape," he said.

The child's family had good relations with Deep. "Our daughter often went out with him. We never expected this from him," her father said.

After raping the girl, Deep fled the house. Later, the girl narrated the ordeal to her parents, based on which a complaint was lodged with Sector 49 police station.

"We have arrested the accused from Barola village on Thursday night. During interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime. A case has been registered against him under sections 376 (rape) and 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC and Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO)," said Vinay Kumar Singh, the station house officer of Sector 49 police station.

Deep was produced before a district court in Surajpur on Friday from where he had been sent to jail.