In yet another incident of minor girls being raped, a 22-year-old man allegedly raped a six-year-old and an eight-year-old girls at an isolated park in Outer Delhi's Bawana area on Friday evening. Pankaj Kumar, who was later arrested for his crime, enticed the two girls on the pretext of buying them chocolates and raped both the girls. After that he thrashed the minors and tried to kill them by strangling their throat. Assuming that the minor girls were dead, he dumped them in a pit. Police said that the incident happened on Friday evening while the parents of both the girls were away at work.
On Friday evening, the girls were playing outside the house of the eight-year-old girl when Pankaj Kumar approached them.
A police officer said, "The girls told us that the man, their neighbour, took them to a secluded spot near a jungle area. When sister of one of the accused tried to accompany them, the accused scolded her and sent her away. The man then took them to the deserted area and raped them. When they tried to raise alarm, he attempted to strangle them, following which the victims fainted”.
Meanwhile, when the two girls did not return home, their families called up police and filed a missing report. Following this, police team from Bawana police station and local residents started searching for the girls.
At around 4.30 am the two girls were found lying in a pit in the deserted ground, in a semi-conscious state. They were immediately rushed to a hospital where sexual assault was confirmed, and the duo was admitted for treatment. Their condition was said to be critical initially, but was declared stable by Tuesday evening. A case of rape under IPC section 376 and POCSO Act was registered and their statement was recorded," the officer added.
Investigators said that based on the description of the accused given by the elder sister of one of the victims and men who flocked the shop where the accused was last seen with the victims, more than 100 persons were called for questioning. Eventually, police zeroed down on the accused Pankaj and he was arrested after a raid.