Eight year old Khushboo is in trauma(www.indiatodayimages.com)
Noida: Khushboo was sexually abused, apart from being enslaved and physically assaulted by her captorsfor five months.
The Noida district hospital conducted a thorough medical examination on Sunday and concluded that the eightyear-old's vagina was torn and mutilated.
"Khushboo was admitted to the hospital last Thursday night. She was in a critical condition. Medical examination has shown that her vagina was torn and mutilated. She has a major infection on her tongue and on her body. The bone of her right hand was possibly broken by force. Gradually, the bone itself healed but it rejoined in the wrong manner," Meena Mishra, chief medical superintendent of the Noida District hospital, said.
Khushboo has also slipped into depression because of the trauma she faced.
"We have never seen such a case of atrocity on a child. Our doctors are shocked by her condition. She has shown little improvement in her health. But she will remain in the hospital for more than a month," Mishra said.
"She still has an infection. She is scared and in utter shock. She will require counseling after proper medical treatment. Her tongue was snipped so she cannot talk properly," she added.
The police have now added Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rape against the accused Sudhanshu Shekhar who had enslaved the minor.
Sudhanshu, his wife Poonam and Rita, who kidnapped the child and handed her over to the couple, have been sent to jail.
"On the basis of Khushboo's mother's statement, we have charged Sudhanshu for rape as well. The victim is too young and medically unfit to give a statement at this point in time. We will investigate the matter further," SP Noida Anant Dev said.
The police, however, have drawn criticism from all sections of the society for allegedly showing a callous attitude towards the case.
City activists have claimed that the police had just tried to close the case by sending the accused to jail without proper investigation.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the Janwadi Mahila Samiti have said they will hold a demonstration in front of the city magistrate's office on September 6 and also submit a memorandum regarding police inaction.
"After Khushboo went missing on April 30, we had complained, in writing, to the Sector-11 police post and then went to the police station. They, however, did not do anything. We also met the SP (city) who directed the Sector-20 police station to act on our FIR. But the policed remained lax and no action was taken again," CITU district general secretary Gangeshwar Dutt Sharma said.
"There is a much larger network of people involved in this gang. We saw several influential men coming to visit Rita on Friday but the police have simply finished off with the case. We fail to understand how anybody can torture a little girl in this brutal manner," he said.
Khushboo had gone missing on April 30 at around 9 pm when she had been playing outside her house in Noida's sector 10.
Despite several attempts by the family to find her, they could not locate her.
She had been kidnapped by Rita, an acquaintance of the family and handed over to autodriver Sudhanshu.
Khushboo had then been tortured and abused by the family for five months. She finally managed to escape on Thursday night and reached the police station to narrate her story.
Source: www.indiatoday.in