Ragpicker raped 5-yr-old girl after wife turned him down: cops

'Was loitering in unlit street when he saw the victim all by herself'

The 24-year-old ragpicker accused of brutally raping a five-year-old girl in Veerannapalya, east Bengaluru, early on Saturday has told the police that he was “heavily drunk and highly lustful” when he reportedly committed the crime.

Veeresha had returned from a village in Bengaluru Rural district on Friday night. He was eager to have sex with his pregnant wife but she turned him down and sent him out of the house. He got disappointed and was loitering in the street, thinking of ways to fulfil his carnal desire. That’s when he spotted the girl.

In a moment of madness, he grabbed her into his arms and took her to a desolate place where he satisfied his lust. He didn’t stop at that. He chopped off one of her fingers to silence her as she tried to raise an alarm, said a senior police officer who interrogated the suspect.

“He maintained innocence when we softly asked him if he had done the act. But his body language betrayed him. We then used our ways to make  him confess,” the officer told DH.

MLC V S  Ugrappa, the chairperson of the Expert Committee on Preventing Sexual Violence against Women and Children, and his team visited Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and met the parents of the girl on Sunday.

Ugrappa instructed the doctors and the police to provide medical support and security to the girl and her family. “The child is recovering. There is a minor injury in her skull and a finger has been operated upon. She is responding to the treatment,” he told journalists.

Ugrappa directed the police to invoke more sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the suspect. “I have instructed the police to invoke more sections following our conversation with the victim,” he said.

The Women and Child Welfare Department has been directed to give Rs 1,000 per month to the victim, while the Revenue Department will release Rs 25,000 for her medical expenses, he said.

Meanwhile, residents of Veerannapalya staged a protest for civic amenities such as streetlights and public toilets in their locality. “Had there been more streetlights in this area, the rape could have been averted,” said Miskin, a resident.

The residents also demanded regular police patrolling to keep anti-social elements in check, and a crackdown on dumping of garbage.
DH News Service