CCTV footage shows child being taken away by alleged rapist
She wanted chocolates, so her mother sent her out with Rs 3 - Rs 2 for turmeric powder and one rupee for chocolate. Hours later on Tuesday, the five-year-old in Mumbai would be seen at a police station, raped, bleeding and tossed between police teams until she could be taken to a hospital.
The man who raped her is seen on CCTV footage carrying her in his arms from near her home in Wadala in central Mumbai. He allegedly approached her at a shop and offered to buy her chocolates.
The child refused, even when the man showed her a 10-rupee note. "I don't want anything from you," she told him.
The man picked her up and walked off at around 10.34, shows the camera footage. Only his back is seen. The police suspect he is a local shopkeeper.
The child was raped at Antop Hill, around 2 km away. At around midnight, she was found on a road, crying and bleeding. Residents of the area claim that after they called the police, it took almost four hours to take the child to a hospital as two police teams from areas just 10 minutes apart, argued over jurisdiction.
A team first took the child to the Antop Hill police station. Then she was taken to the Wadala police station, where her family was told that the case should be handled at the area where the crime took place. So she was sent back to where she came from.
"We insisted that the child be treated first. Then they brought the child back to the Antop Hill police station. We were fed up and said we will take the child to hospital ourselves, that is when they finally took the child to the Sion hospital at 2.45 am."
Senior police officers have admitted that the child was forced to wait.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnanivs has ordered suspension of one police inspector each from Antop Hill and Wadala Police station.