4-year-old girl dies after rape
01:35 - Source: CNN

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Story highlights

A 4-year-old girl died from injuries suffered in a sexual assault, hospital says

A 35-year-old man has been arrested in the case

It is the latest in a number of assaults that have caused outrage

New Delhi CNN  — 

A week after the news of a child rape sparked protests in India, hospital officials confirmed the rape of another girl.

The 4-year-old died Monday from cardiac arrest at Care Hospital in Nagpur, India, a spokesman said. A 35-year-old man has been arrested and accused of sexually assaulting the girl, said Mithilesh Shukla, superintendent of police.

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It is the latest in a number of assaults that caused outrage and raised questions about how women and girls are treated in India.

The girl was allegedly abducted from Ghansaur, a small town in central India, on April 17, and her family found her the next day, unconscious and with severe head injuries, Shukla said.

She was airlifted to the hospital in Nagpur and put on a ventilator but did not survive.

“The doctors tried very hard but were not successful,” hospital spokesman P.S. Shriram said.

Police say the suspect, Firoz Khan, has confessed to the assault.

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“We hope from the administration, the police and the court that a fast-track court will hear the case and that the accused will be given the death sentence,” said one of the girl’s relatives, Aalok Vajpayee.

Last week, two arrests were made in the case of another victim, a 5-year-old girl who was raped in New Delhi.

The assaults on the girls came just four months after a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped in a bus in New Delhi, setting off furious protests in India. She later died at a Singapore hospital.

After the attacks, the country’s news media turned their attention to some of the thousands of rape cases reported in the nation each year.

In a recent report, the Asian Center for Human Rights cited statistics that it said showed 48,338 child rape cases were reported in India between 2001 and 2011. The report said the number of cases rose from 2,113 in 2001 to 7,112 in 2011.