A 12-year-old girl, who was raped and found bleeding on a street in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain city, was on Wednesday operated upon by a team of specialist doctors and her condition is critical but stable, an official said.
Amid massive public outrage, MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that a special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to probe the shocking incident, which has prompted the opposition to attack the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over law and order in the state.
The girl, who was referred from Ujjain in critical condition to a government hospital in Indore on Tuesday, is critical but stable after the operation, said an official of the medical education department. Specialist doctors are constantly monitoring her health, the official said.
Earlier, home minister Mishra said the 12-year-old girl was undergoing treatment and out of danger.
“The girl appears to be from some area outside Ujjain. Since she is not able to respond properly (to the incident), therefore, efforts are being made to talk to her with the help of experts and counsellors,” he said.
Asked about the Congress' sharp attacks against the BJP government in the state over the rape of the minor girl, the home minister asked, “Will you need a Congress certificate?”
The incident came to light after a video of the bleeding girl walking on a street in Ujjain city went viral on social media, said an official.
“A 12-year-old girl was found lying in a pool of blood on a road in Mahakal police station area of Ujjain on Monday. She was taken to a hospital, where a medical examination confirmed rape,” Ujjain's superintendent of police (SP) Sachin Sharma said.
Since the condition of the minor girl was critical, she was taken to Indore on Tuesday for further treatment, the SP said.
An FIR has been registered at Mahakal police station in connection with the rape of the minor girl and an investigation into the incident is underway, he said.
“The girl is possibly a resident of Uttar Pradesh. She neither possesses any identity card nor is she able to tell her name, age and address to the police properly,” he said, adding that an SIT has been formed to probe the matter and to check the CCTV footage so that those behind the crime can be arrested at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath demanded that the victim be given financial assistance of Rs 1 crore and that the accused in the case be given the strictest possible punishment.
“It is heart-wrenching to see the case of extremely cruel rape of a little girl in Ujjain. The kind of heinous crime committed against the 12-year-old daughter and the way she ran around in many areas of the city in a semi-nude condition and before falling unconscious on the road, puts humanity to shame,” Nath said on his official X account on Wednesday.
The Congress leader said that the rule of law has ended in Madhya Pradesh and criminals are roaming free while the people are in trouble.
On the other hand, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, on his X account, termed the incident more heinous than the 2012 Nirbhaya case – about a 23-year-old paramedic student, who was raped and brutally assaulted inside a moving bus in Delhi by six persons and died during treatment.
Alleging that eight rape incidents occur every day in Madhya Pradesh, Surjewala said that the BJP government, which “cannot do justice to an innocent 12 year old girl does not have the right to remain in power even for a moment”.
The Trinamool Congress slammed the state government over the minor's rape and said although the issue of women's empowerment finds special mention in speeches by BJP leaders, cases of violence against women continue to haunt the country.
“While ‘Nari Shakti' finds a special mention in PM @narendramodi's speeches, the reality shows how spine-chilling cases of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN continue to haunt our country. CM @ChouhanShivraj's INABILITY to secure the lives of our women speaks volumes about his priorities!” the Mamata Banerjee-led party said on X.
The West Bengal BJP unit retorted saying the TMC should first look into its backyard as the state has one of the most dismal track records regarding women's safety and law and order issues.
