Delhi Burning, Boiling: Will violent protests end rape?

New Delhi, March 2: The national capital is once again boiling, as people took on to the streets to protests the rape of a seven-year-old girl inside school premises on Friday, March 1. The protests which were mostly violent in nature came close on the heels of large-scale outrage on Delhi streets after a 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped and murdered by six men in a moving bus.

Media reports say security has been beefed up in Delhi on Saturday in the wake of violent protests. Teams of Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed in Delhi's Mangolpuri area, which witnessed violent protests on Friday after the girl was raped inside a municipal school.

Local people went on a rampage at Mangolpuri. The protesters damaged buses and vandalised hospital property.

More than 500 protesters gheraoed outside the hospital where the minor victim has been admitted and undergoing treatment.

Protesters threw stones and bricks damaging several buses, police patrol vans and shops in the area.

Police arrested a dozen people on charges of rioting.

Police officials told media that teachers and security guards at the government school are being questioned over the alleged assault.

Dr Sanjay Kumar, one of those who helped treat the girl, said her injuries were consistent with rape, reports the AP news agency.

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit called the attack "shameful", reports the AFP news agency.

"Rape inside a school is a shocking incident," she said.

Media reports suggest the girl, a Class II student was raped on Thursday when she went to collect her midday meal. The victim was taken to a vacant classroom on the first floor of the school and raped, said a police official.

Victim's parents took her to the hospital after noticing injury marks on her body. The doctors at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital confirmed that the girl was raped.

"We received information at 9.26 a.m. on Friday and a case was registered under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Representatives of a non-government organisation and the Rape Crisis Intervention Centre were involved in providing counselling to the victim according to the standard operating procedure," said a senior police officer.

OneIndia News