Minor girl death case: Delhi Police Crime Branch team visits crime scene

New Delhi: The Crime Branch team of the Delhi Police probing the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Old Nangal village here visited the crime scene on Thursday (August 5), officials said. The visit comes a day after the case was transferred to Crime Branch for an expeditious and scientific investigation, they said.

A senior police officer said, "A team of crime branch unit probing the case visited the scene of crime on Thursday as part of their investigation. The local police have handed over all the case details and evidence collected by them for further investigation." The girl died under suspicious circumstances even as her parents alleged that she was raped and forcibly cremated by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal village. Police had earlier said based on the statement of the victim's mother, the charge of rape was added in the FIR. Four people, including the priest, have been arrested.

Only the burnt legs of the girl were recovered from the crematorium. Since Monday, agitated locals had blocked a stretch of road in the area demanding justice for the girl. The parents of the girl, along with several others, staged a sit-in near the site of the alleged crime on Tuesday and demanded capital punishment for the culprits. The girl lived with her parents in a rented house in front of the crematorium. Around 5.30 pm on Sunday, she went to get water from a cooler at the crematorium. Around 6 pm, the crematorium's priest, Radhey Shyam, and two-three others called the girl's mother to the spot. Showing the girl's body to her mother, they claimed that she got electrocuted while getting water from the cooler. There were burn marks between her left wrist and elbow, and her lips were also blue.

The priest and the others dissuaded her mother from making a PCR call, saying police will make a case out of it and during post-mortem, doctors will steal the girl's organs, so it was better to cremate her. The girl was cremated but subsequently, her parents alleged that it was done without their consent. A crowd of around 200 villagers gathered at the crematorium and the police were informed.