HUNDREDS of protesters clashed with police on Friday (March 1) outside a New Delhi hospital where a seven-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted at school was admitted earlier in the day, police said.
Angry youths hurled stones at buses and police, who then used batons to break up the demonstration outside the hospital which is located in a low-income neighbourhood, India’s NDTV channel reported.
“The protesters were angry over the assault on the little girl and were demanding that police act against the culprit,” a police press official told reporters.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said the second-grader was sexually assaulted on Friday morning while at school.
After police were called, the child was taken to hospital and later discharged.
“The crowds have dispersed and the situation is normal,” the official said.
Police are investigating the case, he added, declining to comment on local media reports that three men – two school-teachers and a security guard – have been detained for questioning.
Delhichief minister Sheila Dikshit called the attack “shameful”.
“Rape inside a school is a shocking incident. It is shameful that it happened,” she said.
Indiahas seen a surge in anti-rape demonstrations in recent weeks after thousands took to the streets to protest against police inaction following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi in December.
Last month, furious villagers in Maharashtra staged protests after police failed to make headway in a case in which three sisters between six and 11 were raped, killed and dumped in a well.
India’s home minister in an address to parliament on Friday promised a probe into the deaths of the three children and said he was “deeply shocked at the despicable, ghastly and brutal” incident.
No arrests have yet been made in connection with that case.
Family members said the girls went missing in mid-February after going out to look for their mother. They were found in the well two days after their disappearance.
In an earlier incident in January at a school in the Indian resort state of Goa, a seven-year-old girl was raped after being dragged into a toilet next to the headmistress’ office during a class break.
The attack prompted state-wide demonstrations and police launched a massive manhunt for the attacker who is still at large.
Police arrested the headmistress on charges of negligence and destruction of evidence for ordering a teacher to “clean up” the child following the attack.
