4-year-old girl raped in labour colony

RAJKOT: The spate of sexual crimes against underage girls continues with yet another minor girl being allegedly raped. This time, the crime took place in Kuranga village, 32km from temple town Dwarka.
A four-year-old girl’s mother lodged an offence late night on Monday with the Dwarka police. She said that her daughter was raped by an unidentified person at the labour colony of RSPL’s upcoming soda ash plant in Kuranga. The rape survivor was rushed to Jamnagar’s state-run GG Hospital for medical check-up and treatment.

The girl’s family had come from Chhattisgarh to work as labourers, said police.

P A Dekivadia, police inspector at Dwarka, said, “The girl’s mother had gone to the washroom for nearly 20 minutes. On her return, she saw a person running away while her daughter was bleeding from her private parts. The woman got scared and started screaming. Soon people and security persons gathered there.”

The family members alleged that though the girl was sexually assaulted in the morning police didn’t lodge an FIR till late evening, which allowed the perpetrator of the crime to escape.

Police have interrogated nearly 17 persons on the basis of the mother’s statement. “We have interrogated all the men living in the labour colony and were working in the night shift. We also questioned those who were at home in the morning time but couldn’t find the accused,” said Dekivadia.

The four-year-old girl’s rape comes a day after the central government issued an ordinance prescribing stringent punishment, including death, to all those convicted for raping minor children.

The crime also comes at a time when there is country-wide anger against increasing cases of sexual assaults on children, especially the gang rapes in Kathua and Unnao and the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Surat.