Police in India arrested a 25-year-old man today in the brutal rape of a 5-year-old girl that's left her battling for her life.

The suspect, identified as Manoj Kumar, was held in the eastern Indian state of Bihar after taking shelter in his father-in-law's home in a village 43 miles from local capital Patna, an official told AFP

The girl was taken hostage Monday while she was playing outside and then attacked for 48 hours in a locked room on the ground floor of the building where she lived in Delhi.

Reports said she was rescued when a passer-by heard her cries on Wednesday.

Police broken open the door to find the girl lying on the ground, gagged and tied.

Kumar told police he fled the building in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar on Wednesday night, thinking the girl had died, according to the Times of India.

The assault came just months after a 23-year physiotherapy student was gang-raped in a moving bus in an attack that triggered seething protests across India. She later died at a Singapore hospital.

Hundreds of angry protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Delhi police today, growing in numbers and intensity following reports that investigators offered the girl's family 2,000 rupees not to file a case.


Global Post