Girl chopped in 12 pieces for ‘demanding salary’; one held

A 15-year-old girl, whose dismembered body parts were found in a drain in outer Delhi a fortnight ago, was murdered for demanding her monthly salary, the police said on Sunday after arresting one of the killers from Nangloi .

The arrested accused was identified as Manjeet Karketa.

The killers had chopped the victim, identified as Soni Kumari’s, body into at least 12 pieces after killing her.

The victim, a native of a village near Ranchi, was hired as a domestic help for a monthly salary of ₹6,500, but did not receive a single penny for the three years that she worked in Delhi, said Rajender Singh Sagar, additional deputy commissioner of police (outer). She worked as a full-time help at a businessman’s house in south Delhi’s East of Kailash area, said the officer.

“The employer would pay the monthly salary, but the people who brought her to Delhi were pocketing the money,” said the officer.

Police said four persons, including a woman who works as a domestic help and the arrested accused Manjeet Karketa, were involved in the girl’s murder. The alleged motive behind the murder emerged after police arrested one of the suspects from Jharkhand on Thursday.

The girl’s father had died many years ago. Kumari lived with her mother and two brothers in Malgo village in Jharkhand’s Ranchi district. Three years ago, she had been brought to Delhi with promises of a high-paying job, said the additional DCP. The people who allegedly lured her to Delhi included Karketa, 30, and his associates Sahu and Gauri.

Police said the trio did not operate any formal placement agency, but would regularly bring girls from Jharkhand and get them employed as domestic helps in Delhi homes.

“Kumari worked at a few homes in the city before being hired by a businessman’s family in East of Kailash,” said an investigator.

On May 3, the suspects took her away from her employer’s home on the pretext of sending her back to her village. Instead, they brought her to a house in outer Delhi’s Nangloi.

“The killers first hit her on her head. They then severed her neck before dismembering her limbs and torso,” said the investigator.