After fighting for her life for a week, an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped and raped in an industrial region of Gujarat’s Bharuch district passed away on Monday night in a government hospital here, according to officials. After receiving initial care at the civil hospital in Ankleshwar, an industrial town in the Bharuch district, the girl was moved to SSG Hospital in Vadodara due to severe internal injuries she had acquired during the sexual attack, according to hospital officials. “The girl suffered from a cardiac arrest at around 2 pm, after which her condition deteriorated. The patient was stabilised after treatment, but at around 5:15 pm, she suffered another cardiac arrest. Doctors provided her with immediate treatment, but she was declared dead at 6:15 pm,” said Resident Medical Officer (RMO), SSG Hospital, Dr Hitendra Chauhan.
According to him, the young girl’s health worsened as sepsis—a potentially fatal reaction to an infection or injury—spread throughout her body, resulting in organ failure and cardiac arrests. The girl was kidnapped by an industrial worker last Monday, December 16, while she was playing close to her hut. He took her to nearby bushes, where raped her and fled the spot, leaving her injured, according to police. The police arrested the 36-year-old accused, a native of Jharkhand, a day after the crime.
The accused worked in the same industry as her father and lived adjacent to the girl’s home. After meeting with the victim and her family at the hospital in Vadodara last week, a three-member delegation headed by Dipika Pandey Singh, a Congress minister in the Hemant Soren administration in Jharkhand, went on to criticise the Gujarat government for its handling of migrant workers. She also gave the victim’s family a cheque for 4 lakh. In response, Rushikesh Patel, the Gujarat Health Minister and government spokesperson, claimed that the Congress was politicising a serious crime such as rape.
