14 in police custody for raping three-year old

KOZHIKODE: Kerala Police have taken 14 people into custody in connection with the gang-rape of a three-year-old Tamilian gypsy girl, an official said Wednesday.

According to the police, the gypsy girl was sleeping on the veranda of a building near Malappuram alongside her mother, and was picked up by a group of rowdy men in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The child, found badly injured and abandoned by the roadside, was rushed to a government hospital in the locality and later shifted to the Kozhikode Medical College where she underwent surgery.

"She is now in the Intensive Care Unit after a three-hour surgery for injuries to her internal organs," said the doctor who attended to her.