At least 15 minors were sexually assaulted in just two months in the National Capital — a disturbing trend pointing to the declining age of the victims and the rising brutality.
In the latest incident, a seven-year-old girl was sexually assaulted on her municipal corporation-run school campus on Thursday. The incident came to light on Friday, when her parents approached the police.
According to figures provided by the Delhi Police, sources claim, at least one case of sexual assault was reported every single day since the beginning of this year.
On February 13, a 12-year-old physically-challenged schoolgirl was allegedly abducted from near her east Delhi residence. She was sexually assaulted and kept hostage at a nondescript factory by her neighbour for two days before being rescued.
A little over a week prior to that, and in a chilling reminder of the brutal gang rape of December 16, a drunk cable operator had inserted an iron rod inside his 19-year-old victim’s throat to muffle her screams as he attempted to rape her at a slum cluster in south Delhi’s Jal Vihar near Lajpat Nagar.
“So far, as many as 51 cases of sexual assault have been reported. Around 16 such victims were found to be minors,” said an officer.
Till the end of February, four instances of crime against women, in which the youngest victims was aged just seven years, were reported within a week from a single police station in southeast Delhi.