 "Bleeding, wandered for hours: The horrific rape of 12-year-old girl and her ordeal in MP’s Ujjain")
A rape of a minor girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain has rocked India. A video of the 12-year-old walking door-to-door in the city’s Badnagar area seeking help but apparently being shooed away by some residents has caused an uproar. Several people expressed outrage after the CCTV footage showed the girl, in a semi-naked state and bleeding, walking around but waved away by a man when she approached him. Local police have told the media the rape suvivor, who wandered for more than two hours in the distressed state, was helped by some people, as per BBC. What do we know about the case? Let’s take a closer look. Minor girl’s rape shocks MP The priest who alerted the police told The Quint that the girl’s legs were covered in blood. Rahul Sharma, the administrator of Dandi Gurukul Ashram, located in the Murlipura area, said that he was going out of the ashram around 9:30 am on Monday (25 September) when he encountered the girl who was trying to cover her body. “I was at the gate of my ashram leaving for a meeting at around 9:30 am when I saw a girl in pain, trying to cover her private parts with whatever she could from an almost torn rag walking towards the ashram. For a second, I couldn’t understand, then I stepped out and hurriedly removed the ang vastra (the top part of a two-part dress worn by priests) that I was wearing on my upper body and gave it to her,” Sharma was quoted as saying by The Quint. He said the minor was in “shock and pain” and “blabbered something” when he asked about her family’s information. Sharma alleged his call was cut twice when he tried the Dial 100 number and he could only contact the Mahakal police station about half an hour later, reported The Quint.
According to the MP police, the medical examination has confirmed the minor was raped. She has serious injuries but is stable and undergoing treatment at a hospital in Indore. What has the police revealed? An auto driver, identified as 38-year-old Rakesh, has reportedly been arrested and three others have been detained so far. “The police have taken an autorickshaw driver into custody on the basis of a video footage. We also found some blood stains on the passenger seat of the autorickshaw, ” Ujjain SP Sachin Sharma said, as per PTI. “Five others are also being questioned,” he added. A forensic examination is being conducted to determine if the blood in the auto is of the rape survivor. Ujjain SP Sharma also claimed that some residents helped the survivor with money when she was walking around on the streets. “There were mixed responses. People in the localities she passed through had helped her. Some gave her Rs 50, others gave Rs 100. She crossed a toll booth on the way. The staff there gave her money and some clothes. At least 7-8 people tried to help,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV. The Quint reported that the survivor has narrated the horrific details of the crime to the police, saying an unknown man “pressed her mouth, touched her chest, and tore her kurti.” The police have filed an FIR under IPC sections relating to rape and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has launched a probe into the case. According to NDTV, the minor, who is from the Satna district in Madhya Pradesh, lived with her grandfather and elder brother. She went missing on Sunday after which her family filed a complaint. Satna’s Additional Superintendent of Police Shivesh Singh Baghel told PTI that a missing report was filed for a girl, aged around 13 years, who was wearing a school uniform at Jaitwara police station on 25 September.
“After reading the news reports and seeing the images of the victim in a school uniform, police suspect that the rape survivor is the same missing girl. Accordingly, a team of police along with the victim’s family members was sent to Ujjain for her identification,” he said. Political storm The Opposition parties have hit out at the BJP-led MP government over the horrific incident. Slamming the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged girls, women, tribals and Dalits are not safe under the “misrule” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. “The brutality meted out to a little girl in Ujjain, the city of Lord Mahakal, is soul-shattering. After the torture, she kept wandering from door to door for help for two-and-a-half hours and then fell unconscious on the road but could not get help,” she wrote on X in Hindi. “Is this the state of law and order and women’s safety in Madhya Pradesh? Girls, women, tribals and Dalits are not safe in the 20 years of BJP’s misrule,” the Congress general secretary added.
Demanding strict punishment for the culprit, Congress leader Kamal Nath urged chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to provide Rs 1 crore as financial assistance to the survivor. On the Grand Old Party’s attacks on the state government, MP home minister Narottam Mishra, as per PTI, reacted: “Will you need a certificate from the Congress?” Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “What a shame on humanity this is. How insensitive can people be to not come forward and help a 12 year old victim of rape? This incident from Ujjain makes the heart weep on the unfairness of it all”. The Trinamool Congress slammed the BJP over the “dismal state of women’s safety” in the states where the saffron party is in power. With inputs from agencies