A six-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, sexually assaulted and brutally attacked with a metal rod inserted into her private parts in Atkot village of Gujarat’s Rajkot district on December 4.
The child, from a migrant labourer family of Dahod district, was playing near farmland where her parents were working when the accused lured her to an isolated spot and attempted to rape her. When she screamed, he allegedly thrust the rod into her genitals, causing severe injuries and heavy bleeding, before fleeing.
The parents discovered their daughter lying in a pool of blood shortly afterwards and rushed her to Jannah Hospital in Rajkot. Doctors have declared her condition stable and expect to discharge her within the next two to three days.
Rajkot Rural Police mounted a massive operation, forming around 10 teams that scanned CCTV footage from nearby villages and analysed mobile tower data to identify suspects present in the area at the time of the crime.
“We eventually narrowed the list to 10 individuals and, with the support of a child counsellor, women officers and doctors, showed their photographs to the girl. She identified one of them, who was subsequently detained and questioned,” said Vijaysinh Gurjar, Superintendent of Police, Rajkot Rural.
The girl identified 35-year-old Ramsingh Terasingh Dadwejar, a farm labourer from Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district, as the attacker. Dadwejar, a father of three who has been working in the region for two years, was arrested from an adjoining field and has confessed to the crime. “Only one accused is involved in this incident. He has been arrested from the adjoining field,” Gurjar confirmed.
A case has been registered under Section 65(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections 5(I), 5(M) and 6(1) of the POCSO Act on the basis of the complaint lodged by the victim’s father
