Nine-year-old girl raped, murdered by a priest and 3 others in Delhi
NEW DELHI: 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.
The four men were identified as Radhey Shyam, the 55-yearold 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 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 and showed her the child’s body. “They told her that the girl was electrocuted to death while having water from the cooler... asked her 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.
Initially, the police registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, wrongful confinement, and destruction of evidence related to the offence. However, following the protest and the circumstantial evidence, the case was converted into one of rape, murder and criminal intimidation, said a senior police officer.