Rajkot: Amid simmering anger across the country against the brutal rapes in Kathua, Unnao and Surat, another barbaric incident of a nine-year-old girl being sexually assaulted and sodomized has come to light in Rajkot city.
The girl was raped and sodomized three times in the past fortnight allegedly by a 23-year-old man who was her next door neighbour in Shastrinagar locality where she lived with her widowed mother. The girl always addressed him as ‘Murli Kaka’.
On Sunday evening, the accused Kamlesh alias Murli Bharwad took the girl, who was playing outside, to his house on the pretext of showing her some programme on TV. After sometime, her mother called her but she was nowhere to be seen. Her mother went to the street searching for her by calling out her name.
After sometime, the girl came out traumatized and scared from Bharwad's house. When her mother asked her why she was so shaken, the girl told her that Bharwad had undressed her and kissed her all over the body.
Her mother immediately took her home and probed further. The girl revealed that Bharwad had raped and even sodomized her three times in the last 15 days. Late in the night, her mother lodged a complaint against Bharwad with the Mahila police station.
Rajkot police formed three teams to nab Bharwad and he was ultimately arrested from Mafatiyapara on Monday. Bharwad works in the workshop of a renowned motorcycle brand as a labourer.
The girl's mother works as a housemaid and she studied in class II in the government school near her house.
Police said that the girl was the woman’s daughter from her second husband, who died after a year-long illness about five years ago. Earlier, around 10 years ago, she had divorced her first husband due to frequent domestic squabbles. Bharwad, who is unmarried, stays with his father and brothers.
