New Delhi:
The 22-year-old man who kidnapped, brutally raped and mutilated a five-year-old girl in Delhi earlier this week, was sent to 14-day judicial custody today. The accused, Manoj Kumar, was presented before the magistrate at his home who sent him to jail till May 4.
Manoj today told the police that another person was involved in the crime, sources have told NDTV. He had even claimed this in a Bihar court after he was apprehended from hometown Muzaffarpur yesterday, sources said.
The Delhi Police has, however, denied arresting or looking for the second accused in the case.
He had recently married and his wife had left for Muzzafarpur a few days before the crime. He had fled to his hometown thinking the girl had died, said police. They tracked Manoj by tracing his mobile phone.
The five-year-old was kidnapped on Monday while she was playing outside her home, and was then kept captive in the basement of the same building where she lived by a man who rented a room there about a week ago. On Wednesday evening, it was not the police but neighbours who found her after they heard her cries.
The attack on the girl was barbarous - she was violated with pieces of a candle and a bottle. She is currently conscious, stable and alert, according to the doctors treating her at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
There is growing anger on the streets of Delhi over the savage rape. Protests gathered near India Gate today but were stopped by the police as prohibitory orders are in place there. Protests also continued at the Police Headquarters at ITO where activists of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded resignation of Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar. Roads are blocked and traffic disrupted at the entire ITO junction.