Indian men accused of raping and torturing five-year-old girl 'watched porn and drank heavily' before attack
One of the two men accused of the kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a five-year-old girl in India had watched porn and drank heavily hours before the attack, according to local reports.
Manoj Kumar and Pradeep allegedly held the child for three days in a rented New Delhi room before leaving her for dead.
Prosecutors told a court today that both men raped the girl but Kumar claims only Pradeep sexually assaulted her.
Pradeep (left) was yesterday and Manoj Kumar, 24, (right) was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of the kidnap, rape and torture of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi
Pradeep covers his face as he is taken away by police after he was arrested in Lakhisarai District yesterday
Protests also continued for a fourth consecutive day today as schoolchildren and teachers held placards calling for more respect for women.
Kumar, 24, who was arrested on Saturday, told investigators that he and Pradeep had been heavily drinking and watching porn on a mobile phone before luring the child in their room, India Today reports.
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He is reported to have told police that they offered her chocolate to persuade her to go into the room.
They are accused of strangling her before fleeing Delhi.
The five-year-old was reported missing on April 15 and was found three days later in a locked room in the same building she lives in with her family after neighbours heard her cries.
On Sunday, Kumar was sent to two weeks' judicial custody and Pradeep, a 19-year-old clothes factory worker, was arrested yesterday in Lakhisarai.
The child victim was in a critical condition when she was transferred on Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country.
Police officials escort Pradeep (centre, in blue) at the regional airport in Patna, to board a flight for New Delhi
Schoolgirls demand greater respect for women during the fourth consecutive day of protests in Delhi
One girl holds up a placard reading 'Delhi shamed again' referring to the number of rape cases in the capital
Police in the city have faced days of protests over their handling of the case
Doctors said she was improving over the weekend.
D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilised.
'She is much better today and her wounds are healing well,' Sharma told reporters.
The case has sparked angry protests that echo those seen in the capital after the fatal gang rape of a student on a city bus.
The 23-year-old died after she and a friend were attacked as they travelled home.
Sporadic protests erupted across Delhi for a third consecutive day yesterday and on Sunday hundreds of demonstrators targeted the homes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and president of the ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi.
Today, schoolgirls held up signs saying 'girls are gold, not to be sold' and 'Delhi shamed again' during the latest round of protests.
Following the outrage at the student's gang rape, politicians vowed to hand down tougher sentences to rapists but the latest case has raised fresh questions about police.
The family of the five-year-old claimed they were offered 2,000 rupees (£24) to keep quiet after their daughter was rescued and refused to treat it as a rape case.
Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar yesterday admitted police had made mistakes in the handling the case.
'There have been shortfalls, so the station house officer and his deputy have been suspended,' Kumar told reporters.
However, he said that instructions given to police officers since the December gang rape case to report all complaints of rape and molestation had led to a 'phenomenal rise' in the number of such cases registered in the city.
'This shows that the tendency earlier to dissuade women from getting their complaints registered has changed dramatically,' he said.
Activists from India's main opposition party, Bharatiya Janta Party protest near the president's House
A total of 463 rape cases have been reported in New Delhi this year - more than double the amount recorded at the same time last year.
Opposition politicians said hospitals are often treating many other child victims of rape.
During a visit to the five-year-old girl's bedside, Sushma Swaraj, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said she was told about another girl of the same age who had been raped and abandoned by her parents.
She was quoted in The Telegraph as saying: 'I saw another five year old girl child in the next room.
'She is also a rape victim. She says her father is a Rickshaw puller. She misses her mother but does not want to go home.
'I think we should hang these criminals and save our children.'
Mrs Swaraj said she had also been told by nurses of a young boy who had also been raped.
At the same hospital, an 11-year-old girl was also waiting for operations to reconstruct her internal organs after being gang-raped in Rajasthan.
Women have taken to the streets to voice their anger at the government and police response to rape cases
Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj said at least three other child rape victims were being treated at the same hospital as the five-year-old girl