New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) The brutal sexual assault of a five-year-old girl in Delhi brought protestors out on the streets again, with a large number of them gathering outside Delhi Police Headquarters Saturday demanding the commissioner’s resignation.
Holding banners and shouting slogans against the government and police, over 300 protestors demanded Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar’s resignation, saying he “failed to tackle the rape crimes” in the city.
The protesters – including members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Students Federation of India (SFI) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – gathered outside police headquarters and tried to enter the premises.
“Entry and exit gates have been closed and police have been deputed at police headquarters. One of the protestors, who entered the headquarters forcibly, has been detained,” said a police officer.
More than 200 police personnel, including women officers, have been placed outside and inside police headquarters with water canons and tear gas to avoid any kind of violent activity.
“We request people to protest peacefully,” said the officer.
The protestors were demanding the death penalty for the accused.
A man protesting outside police headquarters said: “The government makes laws just for the sake of making them, with no intention to stop crimes. None of the laws are implemented, and we see rapes increasing by the day.”
A young protestor told IANS: “After the Dec 16 gang-rape, police appears to have learnt nothing. We hear of two or three incidents each day. How long will this continue? The accused must be punished and police must be pushed to be more vigilant.”
The youth said he had joined protests in winter too, after the Dec 16 gang-rape of the 23-year-old woman, who later died of her injuries.
Protestors Saturday thronged the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where the five-year-old victim is under treatment.
Doctors said Saturday that she had been responding to treatment, and her condition is stable.
Police have tightened security near Delhi Police Headquarters and AIIMS.
The five-year-old girl was abducted April 15 and kept hostage for two days without food and water in a room in which the attacker lived on the ground floor of the building in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar. The victim’s family stays in the same building, police said.
The accused Manoj Kumar, 25, was arrested from a village in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district early Saturday, police said.
The girl, who was repeatedly raped, was rescued when members of her family heard her screams Wednesday, police said.
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