Gudiya was assaulted just four months after Nirbhaya's brutal rape.
A five-year-old girl was brutally raped by two men in the national capital in April 2013. Four years later, no justice in sight for the young girl. A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Karkardooma has accepted one of the accused as a juvenile, and he may soon walk out of jail.
The assault which took place just four months after the Nirbhaya's brutal rape had grabbed headlines with its shocking details. The girl went missing and the police told her parents to look for her themselves. She was later found tied in the basement of the house she lived in with traces of candles and bottles inside her private parts.
Two men were arrested by the Delhi police within a week, but procedural delays have plagued the case since then.
While in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, the trial court passed a verdict within a year, in High court the order was decided in six months, and in Supreme Court the final decision to award death sentence to the four accused was decided in April this year, in Gudiya's (as she was named by sections of the media) case, the trial is nowhere near completion.
In 2015, the court had summoned the headmaster of the school the accused went to in Bihar's Sheikhpura district, and asked him to bring the admission register of the school. The court had asked the police to make an independent inquiry which took two years.
In between, the judges were changed twice, which added to the delay. And on April 12 this year, the special POCSO court judge decided to go by the school register, according to which the accused was born on April 26, 1998. It means that now the Juvenile Justice Board will handle his case and decide on whether he needs to be in custody or not.
Gudiya's family has already asked the DCP of Shahadra district, in charge of this case, to appeal against this order in the Delhi High court.
Gudiya is now a Class 3 student at a private school in Gurgaon. Her father, who was a daily wager, has been hired as a class 4 employee in the same school. He supports his family of four on a salary of Rs 7000. He recalls how several politicians and the media had queued up to meet him in 2013, but now, the same politicians don't take his calls.
"At that time, the Aam Aadmi Party had really fought for our cause. Several leaders came to meet us and assured help. One leader had promised me a job in the MCD. It's been four years and I have not heard from them. I just want to tell them that they should treat my daughter as the daughter of the society and help her get justice."