A four-year-old girl was kidnapped late on Friday night while she was asleep next to her grandmother and then sexually abused in Hooghly near Kolkata, police said.
The victim, who reportedly belongs to the Banjara community, was sleeping on a cot under a mosquito net at the Railway shed in Tarakeshwar, a senior cop of Hooghly rural police said.
The attacker cut through the child's mosquito net and took her away, claimed the family.
The child was found in a pool of blood near the Tarakeswar railway high drain the following afternoon.
"She was sleeping with me. Around 4 am, someone took her away. I didn't even realise when she was taken. I don't know who the people were who took her away. They cut the mosquito net and took her away. She was found naked," said the girl's grandmother, showing the torn net.
"We live on the streets because they have demolished our houses. Where do we go? We don't have any homes," she added, fighting back tears.
The victim, who is said to be critical, is undergoing treatment at Tarakeswar Gramin hospital.
An FIR has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
The BJP attacked the Mamata Banerjee government, alleging that the police were not filing an FIR in the case.
"4-year old girl child has been Raped in Tarkeshwar. Family rushes to Police Station, but FIR not registered! Taken to the Hospital - referred to Chandannagar. Tarkeshwar Police busy burying the Crime. This is the True Face of Mamata Banerjee's free-for-all regime. A child's life is shattered, yet the Police are shielding the State's Fake Law & Order Image, by suppressing the truth," Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in Bengal, posted on X.
