Thiruvananthapuram:
A three-year-old girl is battling in a hospital in Kozhikode, in Kerala, after being allegedly kidnapped and raped by unidentified persons.
The girl, who belongs to a migrant Tamil family, was sleeping with her mother near a hospital in Tirur in Mallapuram district on Monday night but next morning she was found missing, police said. She was found unconscious by the students of a government-run Anaganwadi school on Tuesday morning, they said.
"She had high fever and was found with ants crawling all over her body," eyewitnesses said.
Police first rushed the child to a hospital at Tirur in Mallapuram district, and later shifted her to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, about an hour's drive from Tirur. She underwent two surgeries at the Kozhikode hospital.
The police has registered a case, but no arrests have been made yet. They took 12 suspects into custody, but they were left after verification.
The child had several injury marks on her body, said the police. Doctors treating her said though the girl is not in a critical condition anymore, she will take several weeks to return to normalcy.
The Kerala Women's Commission Chairperson K C Rosakutty visited the girl and her mother at the hospital on Wednesday morning and assured them all help. She said the girl will be under their protection.