Rape Of 14-Yr-Old In Delhi's COVID-19 Facility Shows How Vulnerable They Are Even In A Pandemic

In a shocking incident, a 14-year-old COVID-19 patient was allegedly raped by a fellow inmate inside the Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre in Delhi.

The incident happened last week, where both the victim and the accused were admitted.

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The girl was going to the washroom when two boys allegedly grabbed her, undressed her, took her to the washroom.

While one of them sexually assaulted her, the other stood guard and filmed the incident.

The girl reported the crime to an attendant at the facility the next morning and the two accused have been arrested.

The girl has been shifted to a hospital, and the two accused who have also tested positive for COVID-19 have been taken into judicial custody and are admitted in another hospital.

According to the police, the victim and the accused had become friends after they were admitted in the ITBP facility on July 11.

AFP

The ITBP-run facility which was opened earlier this month is the largest of its kind India and was supposed to be guarded by the paramilitary.

While this is the first such case being reported in the national capital, there have been several such cases across the country in the past few weeks.

On Wednesday, a doctor in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh was arrested on charges of trying to rape a COVID-19 patient inside an isolation facility at the Deen Dayal hospital.

Dr Tufail Ahmad, 30, was arrested based on a case filed by the girl, who works in a private company in Delhi and had come to her home in Aligarh where she developed symptoms of coronavirus.

AFP

She was admitted at the hospital on Monday with Covid-19 symptoms and the test report confirmed the positive status

Dr. Tufail allegedly visited the women ward on Tuesday night and touched the private parts of the patient on the pretext of examining her. On Wednesday morning, the doctor again visited her and repeated the same thing, the girl alleged.

Last week a woman who had was under observation after showing coronavirus symptoms was allegedly raped at a quarantine centre in Navi Mumbai.

The accused, who was also admitted in the same facility went to the room of the woman, pretending to be a doctor and asked if she was facing any difficulties.

When the woman said she was having body pain, the accused made her undress, in the pretext of giving a massage and raped her.

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Earlier this month, a minor girl who was rescued from Barh railway station was raped inside the Covid-19 isolation ward of the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) by a private security guard.

The incident took place on July 8 evening, the day she was brought to the PMCH isolation ward, but the police were informed only last week after the survivor narrated her ordeal to a child helpline staffer who had gone to visit her.