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A rash of rape incidents were reported in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal on Tuesday with minor girls among the victims even as a two-and-a-half-year-old girl in Gujarat died after being allegedly raped and dumped in a bush by her uncle.
As the gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving bus in Delhi continued to stir anger and outrage, police arrested a Nepali youth who had allegedly raped a four-and-half-year-old girl at Pathrika Nagar in Hyderabad on December 22.
In Karnataka, the rape of a minor girl in a village in Gulbarga district came to light on Tuesday, two days after the crime was committed.
The 11-year-old girl was raped in a farm field in Ainoli village in Chincholi taluk on December 22, police said.
Though people from the girl's side approached the local police station to lodge a complaint, their plea was not entertained. The Child Welfare Committee of Chincholi taluk took up the issue and met District Superintendent of Police N Satish Kumar today to pursue the matter, police sources said.
A search had been launched to nab the culprit who fled the scene after committing the crime, they said, adding, there were definite clues.
The girl is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Solapur in neighbouring Maharashtra. A police team as well as officials from its women wing left for Solapur to record her statement, police sources said.
Two of the other rape incidents were reported in Madhya Pradesh.
A minor girl was allegedly raped by a youth at Vardhman Nagar in Indore, police said.
The 16-year-old victim was offered a job of domestic help by a woman, who took the girl to Vardhman Nagar where the latter's brother-in law, identified as Mateen, allegedly raped her on December 23, Chandan Nagar police said.
A case under various sections of IPC and SC-ST Act has been registered and an FIR lodged against the accused by the victim today, police said.
The accused was absconding while his sister-in-law was being interrogated, they said, adding, the girl was sent for medical examination.
Meanwhile, several of the victim's neighbours protested against the incident outside Chandan Nagar police station and demanded arrest of the accused.
The victim used to live with her parents in a rented portion of accused Mateen's house in Nageen Nagar, police added.
In another incident in MP, a woman who had gone to the district hospital in Sagar for treatment of her baby was allegedly gang-raped by three sweepers in Sagar on Saturday.
The incident came to light yesterday when the woman along with her husband filed an FIR with Gopalganj police station.
Police said the incident occurred when the three sweepers followed her when she went to the toilet and raped her after threatening to take her life.
The woman had gone to the district hospital for treatment of her baby.
City Superintendent of Police Pramod Sonkar said all the three accused Rahul, Sunny and Sachin were arrested.
In West Bengal, a three-year old girl was allegedly raped and abandoned in a bush at Goai village in Burdwan district.
Police said the girl, having injury marks all over her body, was believed to have been raped after preliminary medical tests at Katwa hospital last night.
Alerted by the child's screams, a local woman Sohagi Das spotted her lying beside a bush yesterday and rushed the child to hospital after attending to her injuries at Das' home.
The parents of the child could not be traced.
Police said all efforts were being made to locate the miscreants having commited the heinous crime and the administration was bearing her medical expenses.
In the Hyderabad incident, Police said accused Dhanu Shrees alias Dhanu Bahadur, working as a cook in a restaurant in Inorbit Mall at Madhapur, took away the girl to a remote place when she was playing in front of their house on December 22 and allegedly raped her.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Madhapur Zone) T Yoganand said the parents of the victim later came to the house and saw the girl continuously crying who informed them about the crime.
After this, the parents lodged a complaint with Madhapur police while the girl was shifted to Government General hospital for treatment and other examinations.
The victim also belongs to Nepal and her father works as a security guard.
Bahadur, who was absconding since the incident, was nabbed at Secunderabad Railway station today and during interrogation he confessed to having committed the crime, Yoganand said.
In Gujarat, a large number of people led by a local civic body member attended the funeral procession of the two-and-half-year old rape victim at Halol town near Vadodara.
The girl was allegedly raped and then thrown into a thorny bush on Friday night by her maternal uncle -- Keshav Joshi -- working as a private security guard at Virpur.
The accused, hailing from Nepal, had raped the little girl on Friday night when he visited his brother-in-law's (the girl's father) house.
The victim's father also hails from Nepal and had been staying in a room at a factory where he was working as a security guard.
A case of rape and kidnapping was registered against the accused at Halol police station, police said adding that section 302 (murder) of IPC was added today after the death of the victim.
After raping the girl on Friday night, Keshav threw her in a thorny bush when some youths in the area heard the cries and found her there, police said. They saw Keshav on the road and handed him over to police after thrashing him.
The victim's parents had then taken her to a nearby hospital from where she was shifted to SSG hospital in Vadodara for treatment.
After she passed away in the hospital today, her body was buried at Halol.
The distraught mother of the victim demanded death penalty to the accused.