45-yr-old cleaner rapes 3-yr-old girl, brother pleads for mercy hearing sister scream

Kolkata: A three-year-old girl has been allegedly raped by a bus-cleaner inside a parked luxury bus in city's Canal (West) Road, police said on Tuesday. The accused 45-year-old Sheikh Munna has been arrested for allegedly raping the girl who is being treated at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.

"We are waiting for the report of the tests conducted on the girl to confirm rape. We are questioning the accused and our forensic experts have collected samples from the spot where the alleged incident took place," the officer said.

According to doctors at the state-run medical facility, the girl was bleeding profusely when she was brought to the hospital. "She had bled profusely but her condition has improved since last night and possibly she will survive. Signs are clear that she had been brutalised," one senior doctor said.

The alleged incident happened Monday evening, when the accused Munna had dragged the victim inside the parked bus on Canal (West) Road in north Kolkata and then allegedly raped her.

The victim was playing with her five-year-old brother when Munna had allegedly lured her inside the bus on the pretext of giving her a chocolate, the officer said.

"The victim's brother had pleaded with Munna to open the door and let his sister go when she was screaming. The boy continued banging on the bus's door but there was no result," he said.

The boy then ran to inform about the incident to their mother, who is a widowed rag-picker. "The woman alerted her neighbours, who rushed to the bus and rescued her from the accuser’s grip and then thrashed him before informing the police.

"We found the girl lying in a pool of blood on a bus seat. The child's clothes were torn and she was bleeding profusely," the senior police officer said adding that the accused had blood on his hands and trousers when he was arrested.

Forensic experts have also collected blood samples and stains from the bus which has been seized, the officer added.