A three-year-old girl is recovering in hospital after she was allegedly raped in Delhi on Sunday, exactly six years after the brutal gang rape of a student on a bus in the Indian capital ignited protests across the country.
A man has been arrested in connection with Sunday’s attack, New Delhi police announced on Twitter.
Swati Maliwal, chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, had earlier alleged that the girl had been raped.
“Today a 3 year old girl has been brutally raped in Bindapur, Delhi. She is bleeding profusely & is v critical. Am on my way to meet her,” Maliwal tweeted Sunday.
Maliwal also tweeted that neighbors caught the 40-year-old alleged perpetrator and severely beat him.
Police said they were still awaiting the results of medical tests to determine whether or not this is a case of rape. They have not released any further details.
India has been rocked by a growing number of reported child and minor rape cases in recent years.
The 2012 gang rape on a Delhi bus of 23-year-old physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh – who later died from injuries sustained in the attack – sparked national outrage.
In the months following Singh’s death, the government passed new laws to increase penalties for sexual violence, including increasing the length of prison sentences. In April, the government passed an executive order to make the rape of a girl under 12 punishable by death penalty.