Couple held for killing minor girl

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested a couple for killing an 11-year-old girl whose body was found in a suitcase in north Delhi’s Timarpur on Sunday.

Police said the girl had gone missing on October 22, and was killed on October 27. A possibility that the girl was sexually assaulted in five days during which she was confined in the couple’s house cannot be ruled out, senior police officers said. The police have cracked the case with the help of a handkerchief found tied around the neck of the girl’s body.

According to the police, the girl was last seen by her family members when she had gone for her tuitions to the house of a 32-year-old woman, near her house in northeast Delhi’s Welcome on October 22. Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Atul Thakur said the girl remained untraceable since that day. A missing person’s complaint was l odged and search operations were conducted to find her.

“On October 28, when the body of the girl was found, investigators spotted a handkerchief tied around her neck. Initial probe revealed that she had last visited her tutor’s house. When the woman’s house was searched, we found similar set of handkerchiefs and the woman along with her husband was detained,” Thakur said.

The deputy commissioner said, during questioning, the woman’s husband disclosed that they used to force the girl to do household jobs. “On the day of the incident, when she was picking up something heavy, it fell on her head and she suffered injuries. The man said they got scared that the girl will tell her family that she was being forced to do household work. The couple confined the minor girl in their house for the next five days. When she started crying for help, he strangled her and stuffed her body into a suitcase. The suitcase was then wrapped into a blue polythene and was disposed off in Timarpur,” the officer said.

Thakur also said that it is yet to be ascertained what happened with the girl in those five days when she had been confined in the couple’s house. “The post mortem reports are awaited. Sexual assault has not been ruled out and further probe is underway,” the DCP said.