‘Man lynched for molesting girl was mentally challenged’
A day after a man died after being lynched for allegedly trying to rape a four-year-old girl at an east Delhi park, the victim’s mother said that her child was neither disrobed, nor molested.
The woman, however, said she was sure of the man’s “wrong intentions” when he allegedly lured her daughter to Sanjay Jheel, on the pretext of offering her cold water late on Friday.
The man, identified as Sanjay Kumar Giri, lived with his parents and brother in east Delhi’s Pandav Nagar and worked as a carpenter.
According to his neighbours, Giri was mentally challenged. The victim lives in the same neighbourhood.
Police have said that after luring the girl to an isolated spot in the vast park around 10 pm on Friday, Giri disrobed the girl and had taken off his clothes as well, when a group of visitors caught him “red-handed”.
“He was not given an opportunity to explain himself since he was caught red-handed. He was thrashed badly. Some smashed him with stones,” said Amit Kumar, a local youth, based on his eyewitness accounts.
“The man was lying motionless on the ground. He was covered with a towel. The assaulters said he had been caught naked,” said Amit.
He was mentally challenged. He spent most of his time playing with kids. He may have taken the girl to play with her and people may have misunderstood him.
Other visitors said the lynch mob of a dozen men mostly comprised drug addicts who had made the park their den. Omvir Singh, DCP (east), said that while he was “100% certain” about the attempted rape, none of the attackers have been identified. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered against them.
The girl’s mother, a vegetable seller, said when she reached the spot, somebody in the mob was holding her daughter in her arms and the man was lying wounded.
“My daughter had her clothes on when I saw her. She told me she was not disrobed. But she said he quietly jumped the park’s wall with her,” she said.
Giri’s neighbours, meanwhile, refused to believe the allegations . “He was mentally challenged. He spent most of his time playing with kids. He may have taken the girl to play with her and people may have misunderstood him,” said Rajji, an aged woman who had seen the deceased grow up.