A nine-year-old girl was raped and killed allegedly by a priest and three male employees of a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment in south-west Delhi, who then cremated her body allegedly without her parents’ consent or the police being informed. Police said the four men were arrested after the child’s family alleged foul play and staged a protest along with fellow villagers on Sunday night.
Police said the family expressed suspicions that the girl may have been sexually assaulted and murdered, given how her body was cremated in a hurry.
According to the police, the suspects allegedly told the girl’s mother that the child was electrocuted to death, and also frightened the family off from informing the police by telling them that the police would register a case and send the body for an autopsy, where doctors will take out her vital organs and sell them, the police said.
The four men were booked for murder, rape and criminal intimidation, a case regarding which was registered under Indian Penal Code’s sections 302, 376 and 506, in addition to relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the SC/ST Act.
They four men were identified as Radhey Shyam, the 55-year-old priest of the crematorium, and three employees Salim, Laxmi Narayan and Kuldeep, who are all known to the girl’s mother, said deputy commissioner of police (south-west) Ingit Pratap Singh.
Police said the girl, who lived with her parents in a rented house in front of the crematorium, went to fetch cold water from the water cooler installed at the crematorium around 5.30pm on Sunday. Half an hour later, the priest and the three men called the girl’s mother to the crematorium and showed her the child’s body.
“They told her that the girl was electrocuted to death while having water from the cooler. They showed her the burn marks on her daughter’s wrist and elbow, and said her lips had turned blue. The four men asked the girl’s mother to not inform the police about the death. They told her that the police will register a case and the body will be sent for an autopsy, during which doctors will remove her vital organs and sell them. The four then cremated the body,” said DCP Singh.
Police said nearly 200 villagers reached the crematorium on Sunday night and carried out a protest till Monday evening, demanding that the arrested persons be booked on rape and murder charges.
“We want the strictest punishment for the priest and the three men. If it was a case of electrocution, why did they (the suspects) not inform the police or send the girl’s body to any hospital for autopsy? What was the urgency to cremate the body and that too late in the evening, when no cremation is allowed at the crematorium after 6pm. Why did they do it without the consent of the girl’s parents? We suspect that this is a case of murder after rape,” said a 45-year-old woman neighbour of the girl’s family.