Schoolboys play 'hide and seek' to gang-rape 6-year-old neighbour

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Pune: All of six years old, she was just excited that the older boys from her neighbourhood had called her to play hide-and-seek. Before she knew it, the four underage boys had dragged her to a secluded spot and forced themselves on her, all the time telling her that it was a ‘secret game'.

The four boys - aged 10, 11, 12 and 14 - were nabbed by the police yesterday, after the little girl's mother realised what had happened. The incident took place in Pimpri on Saturday afternoon, when the boys went up to the survivor's house and called her to play with them. Under the pretext of hiding, they took her to a nearby scrap yard and raped her one by one. They told her not to tell anyone about it, claiming it was a ‘secret game'. But once the girl was home, she began crying.

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Her mother is the sole breadwinner of the family, working at construction sites and cooking at houses. That day too, she was at work when she got a call about her distraught daughter.

Crying in pain
"On Saturday evening, my sister was taking care of my kids and she called and said my daughter was crying. I went home and found she was running a temperature. She also complained about pain in her private parts, and when I checked, she was bleeding," recalled the mother.

She added, "I asked her what had happened and she told me about the boys who called her to play and then committed such brutality towards her. My daughter is too young to understand what they did; when they told her it was a secret game, she believed it."

The mother approached Pimpri police station in the wee hours yesterday, and a medical test confirmed injuries on the girl's private parts, as well as bruises on her hands, neck and legs.

Read Story: Mumbai teen admits to raping mentally unstable minor more than 13 times

Inspired by porn
All four boys were detained under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. They have been sent to the remand home. PSI Ratnamala Sawant of Pimpri police station said, "The victim is undergoing treatment and is out of danger. She does not understand Marathi so we arranged for an interpreter to help us record her statement. The boys first watched pornographic films on their mobile phone and then raped her one by one as they had seen in the video. The oldest boy was the first to assault her, while the others held her arms and legs. The boys later hid at a relative's house, but we caught them."

Recovering
The girl is currently admitted in Sassoon General Hospital, where she is undergoing counselling. Her mother said, "My daughter is a bright student and is studying in Std I. We hail from Tamil Nadu, but I came to Pune to give my daughters a better future. This is what we got instead."