9-year-old raped by neighbour

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her 20-year-old neighbour at her home in a government colony at the Mandir Marg area in New Delhi on Friday, police said.

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her 20-year-old neighbour at her home in a government colony at the Mandir Marg area in New Delhi on Friday, police said.

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The police also said neighbours were involved in in 47 per cent rape cases reported in the city last year.

The incident occurred around 9.30 p.m. on Friday night when the girl was alone at her residence located in the servant quarters of the government colony, police said.

The girl’s parents work as domestic servants in the adjoining locality, police said.

“Her parents had gone to work. They weren’t expected for sometime when a next door neighbour, Neeraj Kumar, knocked on the door and asked her to let him in on some pretext,” a senior police officer said.

Kumar works as a servant at the Haryana House located in Central Delhi, police said.

“Since Kumar was well-known to her family and herself, the girl let him in. He then proceeded to rape her,” the officer added.

Police said they were informed about the incident after the parents returned home and saw her lying limp on the ground about half an hour after the incident had occurred.

She was rushed to the RML hospital, where she reportedly told the parents about what had happened.

“We have registered a case of rape and the search for Neeraj Kumar is on,” the officer said.

As many as 452 cases of rape were registered in 2009, while in 2008 the figure was 466.

In 212 cases (47 per cent of the total), the victims’ neighbours were guilty.

There was an overall decline of 3 per cent in the number of rape cases and the police were able to solve 94.25 per cent of the cases.