Child rape: Second accused sent to four days' police custody

New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) A Delhi court Tuesday sent Pradeep, the second accused in the five-year-old girl's rape and torture case, to four days of police custody.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg also issued a warrant against prime accused Manoj Kumar, directing Tihar Jail authorities to present him before the court Wednesday.

Police had sought the warrant against Manoj to confront him with co-accused Pradeep.

Pradeep was arrested Monday from Bihar's Lakhisarai district where he was hiding at his maternal uncle's house.

Police said that Manoj, from whose rented room the girl was rescued two days after she went missing April 15, had blamed Pradeep for the brutal attack on the child.

Manoj had also admitted that on the day of the incident, the two had been drinking and struck up the idea of finding a girl. When they came out of the room, they saw the five-year-old playing, according to police.

Manoj said that it was he who lured the girl by offering her chocolate, but blamed Pradeep for the rape.

Manoj was held Saturday from his in-laws' house in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district.

He was sent to judicial custody till May 4 Sunday, following his two-day interrogation by Delhi Police.

The girl was abducted and kept hostage for two days without food and water in the room in which the attacker lived on the ground floor of a building in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar. The girl's family stays in the same building, police said.

The girl was rescued when members of her family heard her screams Wednesday.