(Newswire.net — February 7, 2020) —
A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping a five-year-old girl at the US Embassy in Delhi, India.
He was arrested Sunday after the girl’s parents reported the case, BBC reports.
The girl was attacked on Saturday morning and is now in stable condition. Doctors confirmed she was sexually assaulted.
Her father works at the embassy, and the family lives on embassy grounds.
Police said that the suspect was a driver, but not employed for the United States. However, he lives with his parents on the premises where the embassy staff is housed because his father is one of the employees.
The US Embassy is located in Chanakyapuri, a smart diplomatic enclave in central Delhi. The embassy complex is spread over 28 acres and is strictly secured.
The families of the suspect and victim knew each other well, investigators said. They told The Hindustan Times newspaper that the man “lured” the girl into the house when he saw her playing outside. His parents were not there at the time of the attack.
The girl told her mother what happened when she returned home. She was immediately taken to a hospital, where, according to police, doctors confirmed she had been sexually assaulted.
Police said the man was being investigated under strict Indian child protection laws. The government has imposed the death penalty in 2018 on those sexually molesting children amid protests over two major cases – the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl and the rape of a 16-year-old girl.
One in four rape victims in India is a child, the latest Indian crime figures show. In a huge number of rape cases, 94 percent of victims know the perpetrators.
Prior records of cases of sexual violence came to light after the 2012 rape and murder of a female student on a Delhi bus. This case has led to huge protests and a change in rape laws in the country.