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2nd Suspect Arrested in India Child Rape as More Cases Emerge 2nd Suspect Arrested in India Child Rape as More Cases Emerge
(about 5 hours later)
NEW DELHI — Indian authorities announced the arrest Monday of a second suspect in the rape of a 5-year-old girl, an attack that has shocked India and stirred memories of a gang rape on a medical student in December. NEW DELHI — The police arrested a second suspect in the rape and torture of a 5-year-old girl on Monday and announced that the number of reported rapes in New Delhi had more than doubled since December, while molesting cases had risen sixfold.
The suspect, Pradeep Kumar, was arrested Monday in the eastern state of Bihar, roughly 620 miles from New Delhi, according to The Associated Press, which reported that his arrest came following the questioning of the other suspect arrested in the case, who has been identified as Manoj Kumar. The two are not related. The second suspect, Pradeep Kumar, 19, was arrested in the eastern state of Bihar, where the first suspect, Manoj Kumar, was found early Saturday morning. The two men are not related. Pradeep Kumar was arrested after being implicated by Manoj Kumar in the rape of the girl, according to Indian news reports.
The men who were arrested have been accused of abducting, raping and attempting to murder the 5-year-old, who went missing April 15. Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said at a news conference Monday that the increase in the number of reported sex crimes in New Delhi was a measure of how much more seriously the police took such reports since the gang rape of a medical student in December led to widespread protests and the enactment of a new rape law. In addition to the sharp rise in the number of reported rape and molesting cases, cases of sexual harassment have risen more than sevenfold, he said.
Hospital officials said Monday that the child’s condition was improving. Officials said over the weekend that the hospital was also treating another 5-year-old girl in a sexual attack, and Indian officials reported on Monday that they were looking into at least three other rapes of minors in New Delhi over a one-week period, with victims ranging in age from 2 to 15. Protesters besieged the police headquarters for the third day Monday, demanding the commissioner’s resignation. But he said he had no plans to quit.
The case that led to the two arrests prompted angry protests and painful questions over the weekend in India, since it happened just months after the death of the 23-year-old student who had been raped, provoking a public outcry and demands for stricter laws against sex crimes and more protections for women. “If my resigning could prevent such depraved actions of society, I would resign 1,000 times,” he said. “The problem is one of mental depravity. The problem is one of mental sickness. And that will not be sorted out by anyone resigning, least of all the leader of the police force.”
After several men attacked the student in December, news reports were filled with stories about similarly heinous assaults on women, and India seemed to be experiencing an epidemic of gang rapes. On Sunday, newspapers contained reports from many parts of India about children as young as 4 being raped recently. Neeraj Kumar dismissed the idea that police officers could have prevented the rape of the 5-year-old or, indeed, could prevent most rapes.
The first suspect arrested, Manoj Kumar, lived in a ground-floor apartment in the same building as the family of the 5-year-old. According to interviews that he has given police officials and that have been reported in the Indian news media, he abducted the girl around 6 p.m. on Monday and then fled the apartment shortly after 7 p.m. because he feared he had killed her. He took a train to Bihar, where he was born and where his wife’s parents reside. The girl’s parents reported her missing on Monday, but they said that the police did not take their complaint seriously. The parents found her in the suspect’s apartment on Wednesday after hearing her crying. “Rapes are opportunistic crimes committed within the confines of private spaces,” he said. “Ninety-seven percent are committed within homes, three percent by strangers.”
The parents said that the police offered them 2,000 rupees, or $37, to keep quiet about the case. Neeraj Kumar then listed the relationships between the victim and rapist in the cases that are now being investigated by the police, and they included fathers, ex-husbands, cousins, neighbors, doctors, landlords and a priest.
A doctor said Sunday that the girl was conscious, alert and talking to her parents. “She is out of danger,” said Dr. D. K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. During the assault, candles and part of a bottle were inserted into her body; her doctors treated her for a blood infection and said that she would need further surgery. Manoj Kumar and Pradeep Kumar have been arrested on suspicion that they used chocolate to lure the 5-year-old into Manoj Kumar’s apartment, where they raped, tortured and tried to murder her. The men are alleged to have fled shortly thereafter. Two days later, her parents found her in the apartment after hearing her crying, according to reports in the Indian media.
The 5-year-old’s family said the police did not take their complaint seriously, did not search adequately and then tried to bribe them into silence after she was found.
Nareej Kumar said that he had suspended three police officials in the case and that, after an investigation, “We will make an example of the errant police officers who have not responded or not reacted in the manner expected of them.”
Hospital officials said Monday that the child’s condition was improving. Doctors had treated her for a blood infection and said that she would need further surgery.
Officials said over the weekend that the hospital was also treating another 5-year-old girl in a sexual attack, and Indian officials reported on Monday that they were looking into at least three other rapes of minors in New Delhi over a one-week period, with victims ranging in age from 2 to 15.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.