Cops save 2 little girls left to rot by family

NEW DELHI: Police rescued an eight-year-old girl and her sister, aged three, after they were abandoned without food and water in a one-room outer Delhi home last

NEW DELHI: Police rescued an eight-year-old girl and her sister, aged three, after they were abandoned without food and water in a one-room outer Delhi home last week.

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They were found huddled on a charpoy — hungry, thirsty, and with maggots on their heads. The older girl’s condition is said to be grave as the insects have eaten the back of her skull.

“The girls were almost dead, with rotting wounds,” a police officer said on Friday.

The mother left her abusive husband and three children – the two daughters and a two-year-old son — three months ago.

The father, an alcoholic, locked the kids in the 10x10 room on August 15, and went away. A day later, his mother arrived and requested the neighbours to adopt the two girls, saying she cannot take care of three kids.

“As nobody came forward, the grandmother took her grandson and left. No one from the family returned for the girls,” the landlord said. Later, the girls were spotted begging on the streets.

Neighbours called police on August 18 when a stench from the room overwhelmed the building.

The sisters were admitted to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini. They will be sent to a rehabilitation centre after treatment and recovery.

Neighbours said the couple often quarrelled. The woman worked in a factory and her husband suspected her of having an extramarital affair.

(The children’s names have been changed to protect their privacy)