New Delhi, August 16: Within 10 days of the heinous gang rape of a dalit minor in Delhi cantonment, another heart-wrenching incident of rape of a 6 year-old dalit minor has surfaced from East Delhi. Mirroring the atrocious state of law and order situation in the Capital, especially in connection to sexual crime, such incidents have been on the rise in the recent years.

After continuous protests staged in front of Mayur Vihar police station for two days by the family, relatives, and locals in East Delhi, the police ultimately succumbed to the pressure and booked a man, identified as 34 year-old Sammugam, a local cable operator, for raping and causing serious injuries to the six-year-old minor girl on Wednesday.

However, the victim’s family is not happy with the way the Police seem to be shielding another accused who they insist was also involved in the heinous crime with their minor daughter.

Sammugam, the accused, has been booked under section 376 AB of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 3(2) (v) of the SC/ST Act and the victim is undergoing treatment for severe injuries, the child has been referred to AIIMS from Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where she is reported to be in stable condition. Earlier, after she was medically examined, the doctors in their report confirmed that the minor had been sexually assaulted.

The family said that the girl had turned 6 on Tuesday, but she couldn’t celebrate her birthday with friends as her grandmother was unwell. She was excited about showing her gifts to her friends on Wednesday and stepped out of home right after lunch in Trilokpuri locality of East Delhi.

This was when Sammugan, the accused cable operator offered to buy her chocolates and asked her to accompany him to an empty room nearby, here he raped her. When she returned, she was wounded and was profusely crying. “She kept saying that she fell and hurt herself as the man had threatened to harm her further if she told anybody else what he did to her. She was scared, but when we consoled her, she narrated the entire episode to us,” said the girl’s grandmother as she sat outside the Mayur Vihar police station with at least 50 neighbours on Thursday, to pressurise the police to add another accused to the complaint registered.

Earlier too on Wednesday, the family and nearly 200 locals had staged a protest outside the police station for getting the accused arrested.

Her uncle said that she first came to her aunt with her hands still tied behind her back. The aunt complained about the area becoming very unsafe for women, but said Sammugan, in particular, had a bad reputation of being a pedophile and a wife beater. “Recently, he (Sammugan) dragged his seven-month pregnant wife out on the road and kicked her in the stomach. Some transsexuals who were passing by stopped him. We have heard that he previously assaulted a two-year-old girl as well but it wasn’t reported,” the woman said.

Anurag Kundu, Chairman of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), expressed concern about the growing crimes against women and children in the city-state. “I feel terrible about the state of this city and how things keep going downhill. There is a considerable delay in filing complete chargesheets and that needs to be looked into,” Kundu said.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP has announced Rs 5 lakh ex gratia for the rape victim's family. It should be pointed out here that Delhi Police is controlled by the Union Government (which is politically controlled by Bhartiya Janata Party). So whether it is a political move to preempt any wrong perception decline or otherwise, it definitely has further made the waters murkier.