Minor girl “Raped” in Orphanage Dies in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Aug 12: A Minor, 14-year-old girl, who was allegedly repeatedly raped at an orphanage making her drink juice laced with sedatives, died at while undergoing treatment at Niloufer Hospital early on Wednesday.

The girl was admitted to the hospital five days ago and she died without responding to treatment this morning, a police official said.

According to the police, the child was repeatedly raped by Venu Gopal, a donor to the orphanage, as a result of which she started suffering from health problems.

After the girl filed a complaint earlier this month, three people — a 51-year-old man, a donor of the orphanage who allegedly raped her for over a year, a woman in-charge and her brother had been arrested on Sunday.

She was living at the Maruti Orphanage from 2015, when her uncle admitted her there following the death of her parents. She returned to her cousin’s house in New Bowenpally when the lockdown was declared in March, where she was unusually quiet and later started showing difficulty in walking.

Her relatives, who initially scolded her without understanding why she was quiet, took her to a hospital, where the doctor confirmed that she was sexually abused. The relatives later approached the Bowenpally police who booked a case under sections 376(3), 342, 323, 328, 506 and 109 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 5(l) read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act on July 31 and transferred the case to the Ameenpur police station.

The victim’s relatives, admitted her to the Special-cum-Juvenile Home for Girls, Nimboliadda, from where the staff took her to Niloufer Hospital. She was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after she suddenly collapsed on August 8 and since then she was on ventilator support.