In Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district, about 150 km east of the state capital, a 12-year-old girl was found, near death, lying in a pool of her own blood in the bushes near a government guest house.
According to her parents, the underaged girl had left home to buy a “gullak” (piggy bank) and didn’t return home.
However, the more disturbing fact was that people, instead of helping her, shot videos while the girl lay there in pain. The video was widely spread on social media which also showed bystanders recording the incident instead of taking the girl to a hospital.
A video also showed a policeman holding the girl in his arms and rushing her to a hospital in an auto-rickshaw.
According to sources in the police here, the minor had left her home on Sunday afternoon to buy a piggy bank but did not return home. The parents later launched a search for her with their relatives and friends without any success.
The police said that the girl was found by some shepherds, who saw her in the bushes while their goats were grazing in the government guest house premises. They then informed the security guard, who in turn called the cops.
The minor, who had marks of severe injuries on her body, was taken to a super-specialty medical centre in Kanpur, where her condition was stated to be critical.
The police said that they were looking for a man who was seen talking to the victim near the guest house.
The parents suspected that the minor was raped, but the police said that they would only confirm after a panel of doctors examined her and provided their report.
“We have lodged an FIR in this connection and launched a search operation to nab the suspect,” a senior police official said in Kannauj on Tuesday.