Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Battered baby Falak Wednesday continued to battle for life with doctors diagnosing blood infection apart from her existing chest and brain infections while police claimed to be closer to cracking the case, arresting the father of the 14-year-old girl, who had brought Falak to AIIMS, and two other people who had forced her into prostitution.

“Sandeep, his wife Pooja and Jitendra Kumar Gupta, the father of the teenage girl Mahi who brought Falak to the hospital have been arrested,” Additional Commissioner of Police (southeast) Ajay Chaudhary told reporters here. Pooja is a human trafficker and Sandeep her husband.

However, it was not clear if any of them were responsible for grievously injuring the baby as police refused to comment citing that many more people were involved in the case and answering the question might hurt investigations.

Asked about who inflicted the grievous injuries on the baby, Chaudhary said: “We cannot comment on who hit the baby as of now.”

Police did not rule out any possibility of human trafficking racket in the case.

The arrests came following Mahi’s statement before the Child Welfare Committee Jan 31. The three will be produced in the court Thursday.

Chaudhary also said that Mahi was physically and mentally tortured and went through enormous trauma.

Mahi, who ran away from her south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar residence in June 2011 and was missing ever since, alleged that her father would beat her regularly, police said.

According to police, Mahi was taken to Etah (Uttar Pradesh) by her father’s acquaintance Pooja who forced her to marry an old man. Upon refusing, Mahi was repeatedly raped by Sandeep.

The couple later brought her to Delhi and forced her into sex trade in Munirka area of south Delhi. It was here that she met the key accused in the case Raj Kumar Gupta, who married her and started living at Mahipalpur.

Rajkuamar, who is on the run, had brought Falak to his house.

Falak was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jan 18 with severe head injuries and bite marks all over her face by Mahi who got the baby from her Raj Kumar before heading to Mumbai.

Raj Kumar got the baby from Laxmi who after being questioned by police revealed that she in fact got the baby from Munni, the biological mother, who claimed that she and the baby had been abandoned by her husband last year.

According to doctors at AIIMS, Falak had developed blood infection apart from the already existing brain and chest infection and continues to remain critical.

“Brain infection is a very devastating thing, her chances of survival are now less than 50 percent. We are waiting for the culture reports to decide if there will be any change in the course of treatment,” Deepak Agrawal, associate professor of neurosurgery at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, told reporters adding that it was a race against time to save the toddler.

Currently on ventilator, Falak opens her eyes and blinks but remains in deep coma. According to the team of doctors monitoring her condition, in spite of many infections, the baby’s vital organs are functioning properly.

Earlier in the day, doctors put a tube in the baby’s spine to drain the infected fluid.