Reports of Rape of 5-Year-Old Set Off New Furor in India

Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Protesters converged at Swami Dayanand Hospital in New Delhi on Friday as shock spread in the Indian capital over the alleged rape and abduction of a 5-year-old girl by a neighbor. The girl, said to be in critical condition, was being taken to a larger facility.

NEW DELHI â€" The case of a 5-year-old girl who was kidnapped, repeatedly raped, starved and tortured has provoked a protest, official condemnations and calls for larger demonstrations this weekend in New Delhi.

The police arrested a 25-year-old man early Saturday morning in Bihar, said Rajan Bhagat, a Delhi police spokesman. The man accused in the case, Manoj Kumar, had recently married and was tracked down with the help of cell phone records to the town of his in-laws, according to Indian media reports.

Mr. Kumar had a ground-floor apartment in the same building as the family of the 5-year old, who went missing the night of April 14, according to Indian media reports. Her parents reported her disappearance to the police the next morning.

The girl was found on April 17 by her parents in the ground-floor apartment after they heard her crying, although the accused had already left by then. The girl was taken to a public hospital in New Delhi Friday night, where doctors said her condition was critical, according to Indian media reports.

“We found a 200-millimeter bottle and two, three pieces of candle inserted into her private parts,” R.K. Bansal, the medical superintendent of Swami Dayanand Hospital, said in a televised interview."This is the first time I have seen such barbarism.”

“There were injuries on her lips, cheeks, arms and anus area, her neck had bruise marks suggesting that attempts were made to strangle her,” Mr. Bansal added.

The alleged attack comes four months after a woman was gang-raped and tortured and her companion beaten in a case that shocked the nation and led to weeks of spontaneous protests by people demanding better security for women. That case led to a strengthening of in rape laws, but horrific rapes continue to be reported around India with regularity.

Whether women are less safe in India than in other emerging countries is uncertain, but the issue of rape and police competence in dealing with such crimes has become a burning political issue.

In the most recent case, the parents of the 5-year-old complained that the police failed to take their complaint seriously, failed to search adequately for her attacker and then offered 2,000 rupees â€" about $37 â€" if they would keep quiet about the case.

Those complaints prompted a small protest Friday, and rage seemed to build after TV news channels showed a large mustachioed police officer slapping a female protester in the face. A nascent political party in India promised to hold protest rallies on Saturday in New Delhi over the case.

Concern in India’s central government ratcheted up so quickly Friday night that Prime Mininster Manmohan Singh expressed regrets about the case. Two police officers â€" including the lead investigator on the case and the one seen slapping the protester â€" were suspended. The lead investigator is himself being investigated for allegedly trying to bribe the child’s family into silence, said Mr. Bhagat, the police spokesman.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.