LAHORE: Police took into custody on Saturday a man who admitted that he knew the suspect who had raped a five-year-old girl and left her unattended outside the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital some five months ago.

The arrest came during a raid conducted after a tip-off from an informer in Mughalpura, the place from where the girl was kidnapped, a police officer told Dawn.

He said the arrested suspect, Javed, was involved in many cases of street crime and had admitted that he had handed over the girl to his friend Hidayat, who raped her.

The official said the strong resemblance between Javed and the suspect seen in the hospital’s CCTV footage had alerted the police informer. He said police had got several CCTV footages in which a man was seen carrying the girl.

He entered the hospital from the main gate, dropped off the girl and left. Police had released the sketch of the suspect for his identification and arrest.

According to the information gleaned from the suspect so far, he trapped the girl when she was playing in the street and handed her over to his friend. who took her to an unknown place.

The official said a police team had been sent to arrest the prime suspect after the disclosure by the arrested man. The girl was playing with her three-year-old cousin outside her home in Ghosia Colony when both of them went missing. The kidnapper(s) left the girl on the greenbelt outside Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the boy near the Services Hospital.

The girl underwent two complicated surgeries in the Services Hospital.