Condition of rape victim, 5, improves

The condition of a five- year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped, raped and tortured by a man and then left alone in a locked room in India’s capital for two days has improved, a doctor said yesterday, as protests continued over the authorities’ handling of the case.

The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred on Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country.

But DK Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said yesterday that she was responding well to treatment and her condition had stabilised.

Police say the girl went missing on April 15 and was found two days later by neighbours who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family.

The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police say.

A 24-year-old man was arrested on Saturday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000km from New Delhi, in connection with the incident.

After being flown to New Delhi, he was in custody yesterday and was being questioned, police said.

The incident came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women.

For the second consecutive day, hundreds of people protested yesterday outside police headquarters in the capital, angry over allegations that police had ignored complaints by the girl’s parents that she was missing.