Vijayawada: A 60-year-old paedophile raped a five-year-old girl who was returning home from school at Chintaguntapalem in Machilipatnam.
The girl was assaulted on March 31 but the incident came to light on Friday after doctors treating her forced the parents to lodge a complaint.
Police took the paedophile P. Nageswara Rao, 60, a clerk at a local cooperative society, into custody following the complaint.
Police said Rao lured the child to his house while she was returning from the Anganwadi school with kind words and raped her.
When she did not reach home, her grandfather went looking for her and found her crying behind locked doors in Rao's house. He forced open the doors and rescued her, police said. The child was bleeding and the parents took her a private hospital, Inaguduru police inspector Ramesh said.
She was referred to the Machilipatnam Government Hospital for better treatment. Gynaecologist Dr N. Priyadarsini said the baby was suffering from fever, urinary tract problems, bleeding and was in pain.
Dr Priyadarsini sent the child to the Government General Hospital at Vijayawada, where superintendent Dr M. Jaya Kumar was told that the baby had been suffering from urinary bladder problems.
That she was raped was found after detailed medical examination. The doctors then counselled the family and got them to complain to the police.
Inspector Ramesh said the police had lodged cases against Nageswara Rao under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code.
