Jamshedpur: In yet another case of brutal crime against women, a teenage rape victim was allegedly sexually assaulted a second time while she was admitted in a government hospital in Jamshedpur receiving treatment for the original attack.
The incident took place on Sunday night. The accused was nabbed by the police on Monday morning and has been identified as Shambhu Mahato. He is a private security guard who was on duty in the hospital when the incident took place.
The 13-year-old girl has told police that she was raped on Sunday by a security guard at the hospital where she had been admitted in Jamshedpur city in the impoverished state of Jharkhand, as per media reports.
"We registered a case and arrested the private security guard posted at the hospital after the girl`s complaint and are now awaiting her medical report," police superintendent Chandan Jha said.
"The girl has (now) been referred to the best hospital in the city for further treatment and rehabilitation," he added.
Police said the 13-year-old victim was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after she was allegedly raped by a teenager in the Parsudih area of the city on January 26.
At the hospital, the security guard allegedly accompanied her to the bathroom and raped her, police added. The incident took place at around 7 pm.
The victim’s mother said the accused brought samosas on Sunday evening and asked her to bring puffed rice.
“When I returned with the puffed rice, I saw my daughter was shaking and crying on the bed. She told me what Mahato did but when we complained to the woman guard she scolded us,” the mother added, as per Hindustan Times.
The girl had been admitted several days earlier to the MGM Hospital after informing police that she had been raped by a teenager in her neighbourhood on the city`s outskirts.
"Since the accused in the earlier case was also a minor, he was detained and sent to a juvenile remand home," Jha said.
Public hospitals in India are often poorly resourced, with lax security, while overworked doctors and nurses struggle to cope with a crush of patients and families.
The fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012 shone a global spotlight on frightening levels of sexual violence against women.
It also led to major reform of India`s rape laws including speeding up of trials and hiking penalties for offenders, but high numbers of assaults persist.
(With agency inputs)
