A four-year-old girl was reportedly abducted late Friday night and sexually assaulted in West Bengal's Hooghly, NDTV reported. The victim was found in a critical condition the following afternoon.
A senior official from the Hooghly rural police said that the child was sleeping on a cot under a mosquito net at a railway shelter in Tarakeshwar when the incident occurred.
The family informed the police that the assailant kidnapped the child by cutting through the mosquito net.
The victim’s grandmother said that she did not realise the child had been taken until around 4 am
"She was sleeping with me. Around 4 am., someone took her away.They cut the mosquito net and took her away. She was found naked," the grandmother said.
"We live on the streets because they have demolished our houses. Where do we go? We don't have any homes," she added.
The child was discovered in a pool of blood near the Tarakeswar railway high drain on Saturday afternoon.
The police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The investigation is currently underway to apprehend the accused.
The incident has swiftly attracted political condemnation. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strongly criticised the State government, alleging police inaction and delay in lodging the complaint.
Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, posted on X, claiming that the family faced initial hurdles in getting an FIR registered. He accused the local police of "suppressing the truth" and shielding the State’s law and order image.