Three-year-old raped at playschool, one held

 A three-and-half-year-old girl was allegedly raped after being drugged at her playschool in south west Delhi’s Sagarpur. The accused, husband of the school owner, has been arrested.

According to police, Pramod Kumar Malik, 35, who works with a research company, was arrested on Wednesday. “Probe was initiated after the victim’s parents approached Sagarpur police station on Tuesday. She was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for medical examination, which confirmed sexual assault,” a police official said.

The victim, who lives with her parents and elder sister at Dabri Extension, was admitted to the playschool last year. The official said that the girl’s parents were worried after she began vomiting and complained of an upset stomach on Monday.

“They took her to a doctor but the medicines prescribed had little effect on the girl. She was taken again for treatment on Tuesday, when the doctor became suspicious and advised the parents to get a medical examination conducted,” a source added.

The girl also refused to go to the school on Tuesday saying that she was scared of a man there. Her parents decided to approach police after the girl narrated a horrifying experience in which the accused allegedly gave her a drink, which was suspected to have been laced with sedatives.

After an initial probe, police took the girl for medical examination. “It confirmed that the girl was sexually assaulted and possibly sodomised. Pramod was subsequently arrested,” the source said.

Pramod, however, denies the allegation and told police that the claims are baseless. A case of rape has been lodged against him at Sagarpur police station.