Karnataka: 16-year-old girl taking care of COVID-19 +ve mother raped by hospital worker, his associates

KEY STORY

• Bengaluru: In yet another incident of sexual assault, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by four youths, all aged above 18 years, near Shivamogga city of Karnataka on Saturday evening. Police detained two of the four accused on Sunday morning, following a complaint.

• According to the police, the main accused is a contractual worker at McGann Hospital, where the 16-year-old survivor’s mother is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 infection since last 15 days.

• Family members of patients are permitted near the COVID-19 ward of the hospital but their entry is banned inside. The main accused befriended the teenager when she visited the hospital to see her mother.

  How it happened

   

• On Saturday evening, the main accused asked the girl to go for a ride with him in a car for dinner. He told her that he would drop her at the hospital after dinner.

• The teenager agreed. The accused then, along with his three friends, took the teenager to Ayanuru, around 20 km away from Shivamogga.

• They stopped the car at a secluded spot near the highway and sexually assaulted her. Later, they dropped her at the hospital and left, according to a report by The Times of India.

  Girl narrates her ordeal to mother

   

• The girl opened about her trauma before her mother, who in turn informed her relatives and the hospital staff, following which police were informed and a case under the POCSO Act was registered at Doddapete police station.

• Cops immediately flared up in action after receiving the complaint and arrested two accused within hours. Their interrogation is underway and efforts are being made to trace the other two accused, police said.