New Delhi: In an appalling incident, an 87-year-old woman was raped and assaulted by an unidentified person inside her home in West Delhi's Tilak Nagar area on Sunday afternoon, following which the Delhi Police have registered a case and formed a Special Investigative Team to probe it.
The elderly woman lives with her 65-year-old daughter, who had gone out to meet a friend and she was alone when the attacker entered the home and assaulted her, the police said.
According to the victim's family members, the accused introduced him as a staffer of a gas agency and entered the house and locked it from the inside. The incident happened at around 12:30 in the afternoon. The woman is bedridden and the accused broke into her house and attacked her, the police have said.
However, the family of the victim alleged that the police delayed action and claimed that they did not take their complaint. Meanwhile, the additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of the West district Prashant Gautam said that the family initially lodged a complaint of theft. "Based on the allegations made in the first complaint of the victim, a case of theft was registered. Now again, as alleged by the complainant in her complaint, we are adding relevant sections of the law in the case FIR," he told Millennium Post.
The cops said that after a medical test, the rape was confirmed, hence the police added sections 380, 323, and 376 of IPC to the case.
The family members also claimed that when the elderly woman suspected his activities and screamed for help, the accused assaulted her and later raped her. Further, he also stole her phone and escaped. An hour later, when the elderly woman's daughter came back home, the victim was found injured and then the police were informed.
The victim's granddaughter works in Canada and she lives with her daughter in the house.
Sensing the vulnerability of the case senior police officials refused to disclose further information regarding the case, creating panic in the broad daylight in the national capital. The family also feels that pursuing such a case would also be very stressful for the victim's daughter, who is also a senior citizen.
Significantly, soon after the details of the gruesome assault became public the Delhi Commission for Women issued a notice to the Delhi Police, seeking a detailed action taken report by the end of the week. DCW chief Swati Maliwal said that two counsellors of the Commission reached out to the survivor after they were informed of the incident and that the victim is now under their care.