Three hours after she went missing, the toddler's neighbours found her lying unconscious at a nearby park.
Two boys - aged around 17 -- were picked up by the police for the rape of a two-and-a-half-year-old child, which shocked Delhi on Friday. The boys had abducted the little girl from the middle of a crowded Ramlila, when there was a power outage for a few minutes and during questioning, have admitted to the crime, the police said.
Police sources said they zeroed in on the boys - who lived near the child's house and knew the family -- on the basis of a video footage obtained from a nearby closed-circuit television camera. They were picked up overnight. One of them is a student of Class 10 at a government school and the other had dropped out of school after Class 8, the sources said.
The rape - one of the two that took place within 24 hours -- shocked the Capital and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal renewed his demand of removing the police from under the control of the Union home ministry and placing it under the Delhi government. As Mr Kejriwal met Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to press for his demands, the Congress staged protests outside the chief minister's home.
The police, meanwhile, stepped up their investigations. "More than 15 teams were formed in this case and around 150 locals were questioned throughout the night," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Dependra Pathak. Later, the two boys were picked up.
It is yet to be verified whether only one of them raped the girl or both, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Pushpendra Kumar. "Though the investigation is still underway, during a sustained interrogation they (the accused) admitted to the crime."
The child, who her mother said, was abducted during a Ramlila, was found three hours after she had gone missing.
The neighbours found her lying unconscious at a nearby park, bleeding profusely. She had sustained severe damage in her private parts and had bite marks all over her body. She underwent a surgery yesterday and is likely to be discharged tomorrow.