Family claims gang-rape victim attempted suicide again

A 13-year-old raped by a gang for nine days, recuperating in a hospital here after taking an overdose of sleeping pills, again tried to commit suicide Sunday night, her family has claimed but the doctors have refuted the claim.

The girl was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) from Hedgewar Hospital April 22, after she had taken an overdose of sleeping pills April 20, following her rape by a gang of eight over nine days of captivity.

"She took 16 sleeping pills last night around 2 a.m. She called our mother and told her that she was going to die, and then she fell unconscious," the girl's sister told IANS.

Authorities at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), however, said that the girl made no attempt to kill herself and was recuperating well.

"She is being looked after by a team of paediatricians and psychiatrists," AIIMS Medical Superintendent D.K. Sharma told IANS.

The girl was abducted March 15 by eight men, including some known to her, and was released from her ordeal March 24. She had consumed an overdose of sleeping pills in the morning of April 20 at her house in Farsh Bazar area of east Delhi.

Of her eight attackers, seven have been so far arrested.

The 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother were abducted by two men known to her on March 15 from outside her house and taken to Loni on the city's outskirts.

There, six more men joined the two men who took the siblings to another house and raped the girl, a police officer said.

The boy was released the next day. The girl was kept captive for nine days.