5-yr-old rape victim gradually improving: Doctor

The condition of the five-year-old rape victim is "gradually" improving but it will be at least two weeks before she is discharged from the hospital in New Delhi where activists on Sunday staged protests demanding resignation of Delhi Police chief.

22-year-old Manoj Kumar, arrested in the rape case from Bihar on Saturday and flown to New Delhi on Saturday evening, will be produced in a court on Monday, Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.

The child is responding well to the antibiotics, Dr D K Sharma, Medical Superintendent of AIIMS, where the girl was admitted two days back, told media persons.

"We are trying to control the infection in her body and she is responding well. It will take at least two weeks to discharge her from the hospital," he said. The victim has undergone colostomy and other surgical procedures for her injuries.

"She is showing gradual recovery and has slept well in the night. At present her vital parameters are stable. She is conscious, alert and talking to parents, doctors and nurses.

She is having mild fever which is showing improvement. As such there is no danger to her life," Sharma said.

Protesters gathered outside Police Headquarters and AIIMS for the second day on Sunday to express solidarity with the five-year-old girl and sought the resignation of Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

Though not in large numbers, the protesters of Aam Aadmi Party shouted slogans against Kumar and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Scores of activists of BJP's Mahila Morcha were detained and taken to a nearby police station when they staged a protest outside Congress president Sonia Gandhi's residence.

The women activists had marched from party headquarters on Ashoka Road to Gandhi's 10-Janpath residence.

They broke the barricades near Gandhi's residence, but were prevented from moving forward.

Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said that 22-year-old Manoj Kumar arrested in the rape case will be produced in court on Monday.

Kumar, who was a labourer in a garment factory in north-east Delhi, was arrested yesterday by a team of Delhi Police and their Bihar counterpart from Muzafarpur district.

A court in Bihar had given a 72-hour transit remand to Delhi Police to bring him to Delhi and he was flown to the national capital on Saturday evening.

On reports of involvement of a second person in the incident, a senior Delhi Police officer said investigations were on with regard to another person raping or helping the accused to flee from the capital after the incident on April 15.

The police spokesman issued a statement denying "rumours" of a second accused being nabbed.

"We are questioning Kumar. As of now he has not told us about a second accused. Further investigations and interrogation are on," the official said.

The child was brutally raped and assaulted allegedly by Kumar while being held captive and starved for two days in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar. She also contracted infection from foreign objects inserted in her body.