Ujjain Minor Rape: Semi-naked and bleeding, she went door to door asking for help.
Ujjain:
One suspect has been taken into custody in connection with the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh, who went door to door asking for help but received none.
Responding to questions on the incident in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra told NDTV, “An SIT has been formed, and a suspect has been taken into custody. The girl is not able to speak properly now. She does not seem to be from Ujjain but from somewhere else.” Mr Mishra, who is also the minister in-charge for Ujjain, said the condition of the girl, now in hospital, is stable.
In an incident that triggers shock, shame and rage in equal measure, the 12-year-old was raped brutally. Semi-naked and bleeding, she went door to door asking for help, only to be shooed away. A CCTV camera at Badnagar road, about 15 km from Ujjain city, captured the girl as she seeks help. A man seen in a footage turns her away.
A medical examination of the girl has confirmed rape. She has not been able to tell her name and address to police, but her accent suggests she is from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, senior police officer Sachin Sharma has said.
Police have registered a rape case against unidentified men. Sections of the stringent law against child abuse, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, have also been invoked.
The incident, which comes months ahead of Assembly polls, has sparked a massive Opposition attack on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government.
Former chief minister Kamal Nath, who is the Congress’s face in the state, has said Madhya Pradesh is becoming the “most unsafe state for women”. “The safety of daughters is just a subject of ads and speeches for this government,” he said in a post on ‘X’.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is the party’s Madhya Pradesh in-charge, said the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has nothing to offer other than false promises and fake claims.
The incident in Ujjain has yet again brought under the spotlight Madhya Pradesh’s dismal record on violence against women.
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have reported the highest number of cases of disappearance of women and girls between 2019 and 2021. Also, Madhya Pradesh reported most incidents of rapes in the country in 2021- 6,462 – as per the National Crime Records Bureau data. Out of them, more than 50 per cent were crimes against minors. The number translates to 18 rapes per day.
