Hunt on for 2nd man; protests across Delhi

• Protesters demand removal of Delhi Police chief
• 5-year-old girl out of "danger"
• Accused sent to judicial custody till May 4.

New Delhi (Agencies): Investigators on Sunday launched a hunt for a second person in the rape of a five-year-old girl after an arrested man spoke about the role of another man in the incident over which protests here demanding the removal of Police Commissioner erupted for a third day.A As the anger over the gruesome rape spilled onto the capital's streets, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said collective efforts were needed to root out such "depravity" from society.

The girl is "gradually" recovering and there is "no danger" to her life though it will take another two weeks to discharge her from the hospital, doctors at AIIMS said.

On a day of flip-flop by the Delhi Police on the issue of the role of second person, the accused Manoj Kumar was produced before a court and agreed for a test identification parade. The duty magistrate sent him to judicial custody till May 4.

Earlier in the day, police announced that they would produce Kumar, who was arrested from his in-laws' house in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Saturday, in court on Monday before the expiry of transit remand granted by a Bihar court. The police had in a statement earlier in the day denied "rumours" of arresting a second accused or "looking" for him.

Sources said Kumar had taken the name of the second person's presence at the time of the incident with Delhi Police as well as Bihar Police during questioning. In the evening, a senior police official said they were probing whether the second suspect is involved in the rape or whether he helped Kumar in fleeing the capital on April 15 soon after the rape.

The day witnessed outraged students and women staging demonstrations at India Gate, Police Headquarters and near the residences of the Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Placard-wielding protesters also gathered at AIIMS, where the girl is undergoing treatment, and burnt the effigy of Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar demanding his sacking. Traffic was disrupted at ITO and India Gate in the evening as the number of protesters swelled.

More than 100 people, who staged protests at PHQ and near the residences of Singh and Gandhi, were detained and later released. Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed near the residence of the Prime Minister and PHQ. The protesters were in small groups unlike the thousands who had swamped India Gate and Rajpath last December following the rape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus, but their anger was palpable.

The girl was locked in a ground floor rented accommodation of 22-year-old Kumar, her neighbour, in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar where she was brutally raped before the accused fled on April 15 presuming that she is dead.A On its change of mind on producing the accused in a court, a police officer said it was done in fairness of investigations.