The priest who saved a 15-year-old rape victim in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, has revealed the horrible condition she was in when he discovered her. About 15 kilometres outside of the city of Ujjain, Rahul Sharma is connected to an ashram on Badnagar Road.

He saw the girl, bleeding and half-naked, near the gates of the ashram on Monday around 9.30 am as he was leaving for work. I handed her my clothing. She had a cut on her. She was speechless. Her eyes were enlarged. On 100, I dialled. I called the Mahakal police station and let them know about the problem after I was unable to reach the police via the helpline. It took the police around 20 minutes to get to the ashram, he claimed.

A CCTV image of the girl, who was hurt and only partially clothed, knocking on doors for assistance but getting none, has caused widespread outrage. She approaches one man and he pushes her away. She didn’t receive assistance until she arrived at an ashram in the area.

The priest claimed that despite their inability to comprehend her, the girl was speaking to them. “We enquired about her family and her name. We reassured her that she is secure and asked for her family’s contact information so that we can get in touch with them. She was terrified, though,” Mr. Sharma noted.

As they waited for the police, the priest claimed that the girl could trust him. She tried to hide behind me whenever someone else approached her. Then the police arrived and took her away.

The priest noted that they were unable to understand the location and said, “The girl was talking about some place.”

A Special Investigation Team has been established by the police to look into the occurrence. The strict Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been triggered in response to a reported occurrence of rape.