New Delhi: A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped and beaten up by a bus conductor in Rajasthan’s Karauli district late Friday night. The incident took place near Hindaun city, a little over two kilometres away from the local police station.
The accused, identified as Ajeet Jogi, 34, a resident of the same area where the victim lives, was arrested Sunday evening. Karauli Superintendent of Police (SP) Shailendra Singh Indoliya told ThePrint that he has a criminal record, including a past accusation of rape, and has confessed to the crime.
The FIR, accessed by ThePrint, was registered Saturday morning under sections 5 and 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, as well as sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting woman with intent that she may be compelled to marry against her will or be forced or seduced to illicit intercourse), 376A and B (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the FIR, the girl has deep bite marks on her cheek, chest and arms, and severe injuries on her torso. She was first admitted to Hindaun city government hospital, from where she was referred to a private hospital in Jaipur, where she underwent surgery.
Her family belongs to the Madari community, whose members earn a living by performing magic tricks and conducting dance performances on the streets, and live in makeshift homes near the city.
Speaking to ThePrint, the girl’s father said she was sleeping outside their home before she went missing late Friday night. They embarked on a “frantic search, involving the neighbours as well”. She was found hours later, sitting on a mound of garbage below an overbridge around 2.5 kilometres from her home.
“The accused was drunk when he kidnapped the girl from her house. He lured her with chocolates and asked her to come with him while her parents were sleeping,” SP Indoliya told ThePrint. “We found his clothes too that were bloodied because the girl was bleeding profusely.”
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A frantic search
The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the girl’s father. It said that he last saw his daughter around midnight, when the family of five was sleeping outside their house, and was kidnapped around 2 am.
“It was the usual routine. I gave my daughter some water around midnight, that was the last time I saw her. When my youngest began crying, I realised that my 4-year-old was missing. I immediately woke everyone up and started searching for her frantically. I started informing people about her absence. We began our search from the nearby mandi (market),” read the FIR, quoting the father’s complaint.
Further quoting from the complaint, the FIR said the family approached the local police station around 3.30 am, but was told to wait till morning and continue their search. If she is not found by then, a team would be deployed to search for her, they were allegedly told.
However, SP Indoliya said that they started alerting various departments about the missing minor soon after the family initially approached the police station.
“Around 5 am on Saturday, a woman who worked as a garbage collector in the area found the child sobbing under a bridge amid a huge heap of garbage. She took the child to her family members, who rushed her to the Hindaun government hospital,” the FIR read.
Speaking to ThePrint, the girl’s father recollected the “horror, anxiety and shock” that his family experienced while the search was underway.
“It was difficult to fathom that she was kidnapped from near her own house where all of us were sleeping. My daughter was not the kind who would wander off by herself. My wife was in shock and anxious throughout since she had to be with my other three children. It was horrifying for all of us,” he said.
The family had moved to the area just two months ago. “Not many people knew us. The neighbours helped us a lot, we would not have found her if they did not search for her. She was taken to the hospital around 6.30 am and that is when we got to know about her injuries. So, we filed a complaint at the police station,” he added.
The father stated that the doctors, after examining her, said she had been raped and beaten brutally, which led to some “grave injuries”.
His family has been at the Jaipur hospital since his daughter was admitted there. “We have been sitting here since Saturday night and she has gone through one difficult operation. Her injury around the torso is grave where there are lots of blood clots,” he said.
CCTV footage, a ‘confession’
According to Sub-Inspector Shyam Sundar of the local police station, after the family filed a complaint, his team alerted the Rajasthan State Commission for Women.
“We informed the women’s cell in the morning, who immediately travelled to the city. We filed a complaint and I went with the family in the evening to Jaipur for the girl’s treatment,” he told ThePrint.
SP Indoliya refuted the claim made by the girl’s family in their complaint that they were told to wait when they first went to the local police station soon after she went missing. He said that they took the girl’s photo from the family and started alerting various departments.
He further said that three investigation teams were formed to look into the case and three people were initially detained for questioning.
“These men had prior criminal records and we questioned them. There was CCTV footage that we relied on as well. Although the footage was not so clear, we could still establish that it was Ajeet Jogi who committed the crime. He has a criminal record as well, and one of the charges he faces includes rape,” Indoliya added. “We detained him after he confessed to us.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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Source: The Print
