8-Month-Old Raped Allegedly By Cousin In Delhi, Needed Three-Hour Surgery

An eight-month-old baby was raped allegedly by her 28-year-old cousin at her home in Delhi, and needed three-hour surgery for her injuries, after which she is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Doctors say she is stable.

The baby was brought, severely wounded and bleeding, to the hospital on Sunday evening.

She was assaulted at her home in west Delhi's Subhash Nagar when her parents were both out for work, according to the police.

"I left for duty and later my wife also had to leave for about an hour," said the baby's father, a labourer. The child was left in the care of a relative in the building.

When the mother, a domestic help, returned, she found the baby crying on a bed that was covered in blood.

The baby was taken to hospital, where it was confirmed that she had been raped.

The family told the police that they suspected the child's cousin, the father of a boy, who was missing.

The man was arrested last evening. According to the police, he confessed during his interrogation.

He had allegedly taken away the baby saying he wanted to play with her.

"This man puts humanity to shame. Despite being a father he did this," said Swati Maliwal, who heads the Delhi Commission for Women.

Ms Maliwal had tweeted last night:

The worst has happened. An 8 month old baby has been brutally raped in the Capital and is battling for her life in a Hospital. Going to the hospital to meet her. Am totally numb. Terrified to face her! Please please pray for her.

Swati Jai Hind (@SwatiJaiHind) 29 January 2018

Hitting out at the police in a series of tweets, she raged: "This is not the rape of an eight-month-old child but the rape of the Delhi Women's Commission."

The accused man has been charged with offences for which he could face life in jail.

Laws on rape were made tougher after the fatal gang-rape in 2012 of a young student on a moving bus in Delhi.

The rape of a baby plumbs the depths at a time Delhi and neighbouring Haryana are struggling with attacks on children. Two girls, 15 and 11, were raped, tortured and killed in Haryana.