GHANSOR, India, April 30 (UPI) -- The 4-year-old girl who was raped then left near a crematorium in central India has died of cardiac arrest, her doctor said Tuesday.
Authorities said the child had been in a coma since her parents found her bleeding April 18, the day after she was apparently lured from her home in Ghansor when a man promised to buy her a banana, The New York Times reported.
Ashok Tank, one of the doctors who treated the girl, told the Times in a phone interview Tuesday the girl suffered severe injuries to her brain and vagina and was on a ventilator.
"Her heart and lungs stopped functioning," Tank said. "It is very inhuman that such a young girl was subjected to sexual abuse."
The police arrested Firoz Khan, 27, who works near the girl's home, and Rakesh Chaudhary, 25, whom officials allege took the girl to her attacker but isn't suspected of participating in the rape.
"The investigation is going on," said Mithlesh Shukla, police superintendent for the Seoni district. "They will be charged soon and we will ensure that they get the strictest punishment."
The number of reported sexual assaults of girls under 18 has risen in India since the 1990s. Experts told the Times they think the reason is because more families are reporting the crimes, while others said the reason involved social and cultural factors, or the breakdown of the traditional close-knit Indian family.
