Five-month-old baby raped by mother’s uncle

Visakhapatnam: A five-month-old girl was allegedly raped by a 40-year-old man in Ramabhadrapuram mandal of Vizianagaram district.

According to a complaint by the baby’s mother, she and her older daughter left the house at 9 a.m. on Friday to buy vegetables from a street vendor while the baby was sleeping in its cradle.

When the baby started crying, the mother sent her older daughter to check on it. The daughter saw her mother’s uncle from the neighboring village holding the baby, which was covered in blood.

When the older daughter saw this, she raised the alarm, whereupon her mother and the neighbors rushed to the house. The person put the girl in her cradle and managed to escape.

The girl’s mother noticed bleeding in her private parts and blood stains on the cradle. She took the girl to the government hospital in Badangi. The doctors there administered first aid to the baby and referred her to the government hospital in Vizianagaram town.

Based on a complaint from the victim’s mother, the police have registered a case under Section 65(2) (rape of a woman below 12 years of age) and the POCSO Act.

Bobbili DSP P. Srinivas Rao told Deccan Chronicle that they arrested the accused, a labourer, on Sunday morning. He had committed the crime under the influence of alcohol.

The DSP said it had seized the blood-stained cradle and clothes of the accused and sent them to a forensic laboratory for examination.

Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha and Minister for Women and Child Welfare Gummadi Sandhya Rani expressed their shock. Sandhya Rani demanded the death penalty for the child molester.

The Interior Minister held talks with the officials and instructed them to ensure the strictest punishment for the accused.

The baby’s condition is currently stable.