On Tuesday afternoon, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl was allegedly gagged and raped by a 22-year-old neighbor at her home in Triplicane. 

According to The Times of India, doctors said they had found nail marks on her body and had sent smears for a test to confirm rape. 

Police have registered a case under Sections 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and are looking for the perpetrator.

The child’s mother said she was sweeping her home and subsequently left the child to play and went to fetch water. 

When she returned, the girl was missing. She began searching for her when after nearly 15 minutes she heard the child's cries from a locked house nearby. 

Her daughter was found crying with a cloth stuffed in her mouth. 

She saw a youth named Vijay who came to visit his grandmother, with her daughter in the room.

When Vijay opened the door, the woman asked him why her daughter was crying. He claimed she had fallen off the bed and sustained injuries. The youth managed to slip away. 

The child then told her mother about what he had done. 

“He had sprinkled face powder on the bed where there was blood stains,“ said the child's father.

The child was taken to the government Royapettah Hospital where doctors referred her to government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children.