Salvaging its reputation partially, the Delhi Police claims to have arrested the suspect in the rape and brutalisation of a five-year-old in the national capital.

The accused, identified as one Manoj Kumar, was arrested from Muzaffarpur district of Bihar on Friday night by a team of Delhi Police with the help of local cops, according to reports.

The arrest came late on a day the Delhi Police’s repute was besmirched once again. Besides failing to stop repeated cases of crime against women in the national capital, the police have also faced flak, and rightly so, for showing unnecessary aggression in the face of protests. After the ham-handed way they stopped the demonstrators in India Gate region in the aftermath of the December 16 gangrape, an assistant commissioner of Delhi Police named BS Ahlawat slapped a woman who was protesting along with others on Friday.

The five-year-old girl, a resident of Gandhi Nagar in east Delhi, was abducted on April 15 and kept hostage for two days without food and water in Manoj Kumar’s flat — in the same building where the victim’s family lives.

The girl was rescued when her family members heard her screams on Wednesday evening, the police said. She is being treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and is stated to be stable and conscious. But doctors said the next 48 hours will be crucial for the child.

Meanwhile, the latest beastly incident of rape and assault, coming barely four months after the gangrape and subsequent death due to assault of a paramedical student in Delhi, has led to widespread public outrage in the national capital.

The allegations by the victim’s family that the police first delayed filing the FIR and then tried to fend them off with Rs 2,000 after the child was rescued fuelled public anger further.

The incident comes close on the heels of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit unveiling the first ever tagline for the national capital with much fanfare — Dildaar Dilli — a fact not lost on people. While Delhi BJP immediately hit back on Friday, saying it's not dildaar Dilli but should be renamed "balatkaar (rape) Dilli", outrage from the average citizen poured out on social media as well.

PM ‘deeply disturbed’

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said he was “deeply disturbed" with the brutality committed on the child and asked the society to work to root out the evil. He also expressed anger over the way protesters were treated by the Delhi Police.

ACP Ahlawat was suspended on Friday night and two other officials faced similar action on the charge of trying to hush up the case.