Baby girl in ‘critical condition’ after suffering assault by cousin

Warning: the details of this story may distress some readers.

A baby girl is in critical condition after suffering an assault by her 28-year-old cousin. The eight-month-old was rushed to hospital after she was allegedly raped by her cousin while her parents were at work in New Delhi, India. Al Jazeera reports that the girl was found by her mother after she returned home. Doctors have confirmed that the infant was raped and that she needed emergency surgery due to the internal damage caused by the assault. The suspect has since been arrested. Parvati, additional Sub-Inspector at Subhash Nagar Police Station, told the publication:

"We arrested the accused yesterday. He is the 28 year-old cousin of the victim. "We have booked him under 376 Indian Penal Code and section 6 of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences. The investigation is still underway."

Swati Maliwal, the chief of the Delhi Commission for Women, said that she is "horrified" by the case. Maliwal recently visited the baby in hospital. She said:

"I can still hear her screams and cries. As DCW chief, I feel horrified at this abuse of a child, I feel as if I have been raped. She is on life support right now. "At present, cases drag on for years. There is no deterrence, no fear."

Maliwal is advocating for the death penalty within six months if an attacker is found to be guilty. The most recent statistics available from the National Crime Records Bureau show that 94.8 percent of child rape cases in India saw the victim attacked by someone they knew. Child rape cases rose by 82 percent in the country between 2015 and 2016.