Story highlights
Indian prime minister says India needs "vast improvements" on women's safety
The alleged rape of a 5-year-old girl has sparked demonstrations all weekend in India
The girl is recovering and is in stable condition, doctors say
This is the latest high-profile alleged rape in India, after a gang rape on a bus in December
While a 5-year-old victim of an alleged rape recovers in a New Delhi hospital, India’s prime minister admits that his country has “vast improvements to make” when it comes to “the safety, security and status of women in our society,” and protesters are taking to the streets of the Indian capital.
The little girl is stable, conscious and alert, her doctor, D.K. Sharma, said Sunday.
The girl’s neighbor, who allegedly raped her, was arrested in Bihar state in eastern India, then brought to New Delhi in police custody, city police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. The suspect is expected in court Monday and will not be eligible for bail, Bhagat said.
Indian police say the suspect abducted the 5-year-old last Sunday, locked her in his house and brutally raped her repeatedly before she was found semiconscious Wednesday on the ground floor of her building.
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Doctors said they had to remove foreign objects, including candle pieces and a small bottle, from the girl’s genitals.
The assault came just four months after a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang raped in a moving bus, triggering seething protests in India. She later died at a Singapore hospital.
Criticized for what was seen as a slow response to the savage December attack, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quick to issue a statement this time, calling the act “shameful.”
Sunday, in a follow-up statement, Singh said, “The gruesome assault on a little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society.”
Protests have swept through New Delhi since Friday. Many demonstrators are members of a political party of a leading anti-corruption activist, Arvind Kejriwal.
Outside the prime minister’s residence Sunday, nonviolent demonstrators conducted a sit-in. Video from CNN affiliate CNN-IBN showed police removing the protesters.
As the nation’s media ran footage of a police officer slapping a female protester outside a hospital Sunday, Singh ordered strict action against the officer and anyone else who roughed up demonstrators. The offending officer was suspended, Bhagat said.
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CNN’s Harmeet Shah Singh contributed from New Delhi and Aliza Kassim from Atlanta.