NEW DELHI — A 4-year-old girl who was raped
and dumped near a crematorium in central India died on Monday evening
from cardiac arrest, hospital authorities said Tuesday.
The girl, the daughter of day laborers, was
lured from her home in the town of Ghansor in Madhya Pradesh State on
April 17 and found the next day by her parents, bleeding profusely, the
police said.
Her kidnapper seized her after promising to buy her bananas from a nearby shop, a police official said Tuesday.
She had been in a coma since April 18, Ashok
Tank, a doctor who cared for her at Care Nagpur Hospital, said in a
telephone interview Tuesday. She suffered severe brain injuries and
severe injuries to her vagina, he said, and had been on a ventilator.
“Her heart and lungs stopped functioning,”
Dr. Tank said. “It is very inhuman that such a young girl was subjected
to sexual abuse.”
The girl was transferred from a hospital in Madhya Pradesh to Care Nagpur, in nearby Maharashtra State, on April 20.
The police have arrested Firoz Khan, 27, a
welder who worked at the nearby Jhabua Power Plant, in the attack. They
have also arrested a second man, Rakesh Chaudhary, 25, who is accused
of bringing the girl to her attacker.
“The investigation is going on,” said
Mithlesh K. Shukla, superintendent of police for the Seoni district.
“They will be charged soon and we will ensure that they get the
strictest punishment.”
Raminder Pal Singh/European Pressphoto Agency Reports
of child rape have drawn protests in India. A candlelight vigil in
Amritsar, Punjab, on April 22, was held to show solidarity toward a
5-year-old girl who was raped and left to die in a New Delhi tenement
this month.
The number of reported sexual assaults of
girls under the age of 18 has climbed steadily in India since the
1990s, and reported rapes of girls under the age of 10 have more than
doubled from 1990 to 2011.
Some experts explain the increase by saying
that more families are coming forward to report the crimes, while
others blame a combination of social and cultural factors, including
the mass migration of unskilled laborers from rural areas to urban
centers, and the breakdown of the traditional close-knit Indian family.
On Monday, one Indian religious leader attributed the rise in rapes to
increased consumption of meat and alcohol.
In India’s capital, New Delhi, the police said several very young girls had been raped in April alone. One of those rapes, involving a 5-year-old who was also abducted,
ignited sometimes violent protests earlier this month, but as of noon
on Tuesday, there was little public reaction in Madhya Pradesh over the
recent death.
“The value of life for a little girl whether
in Delhi or Madhya Pradesh is the same,” said Varun Amar, a lawyer from
Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. “So why are people not coming on
to the streets when this girl has died?”
“The girl from Delhi got 24-7 coverage, but this girl’s death has hardly been covered,” he said.
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