(Trigger warning: Descriptions of rape and sexual assault. Reader discretion advised.)
A week after a nine-year-old girl went missing from her home in North Delhi, the Delhi Police on Tuesday, 19 December, said that the victim was allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered by her 52-year-old landlord before dumping her body in the Munak canal.
The incident took place on 12 December in outer north Delhi's Swaroop Nagar. While the accused was arrested on Monday, 18 December, police officials told The Quint that search operations are underway to recover the body of the victim.
A First Information Report (FIR) was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 364 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), and 201 (destruction of evidence), and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at the Swaroop Nagar police station.
'Accused Offered To Help Family Search For Girl': Father
The victim, a class 4 student at a government school, had been living with her parents — both of whom were labourers at a factory — and two younger brothers at the rented accommodation owned by the accused in Swaroop Nagar for the past five years.
Originally from Uttar Pradesh, the victim's father told The Quint that they had been living in Delhi for over 12 years.
According to the FIR filed, the nine-year-old had gone missing when she was playing outside their rented accommodation around 2 pm on 12 December.
"I left for work in the morning (12 December), while my wife left at around 1:30 pm, taking our two-year-old son with her. My daughter was playing outside when my wife left. But later, I got a call from my neighbor that my daughter was missing. Initially, I thought she had gone to her friend's place, but there was no sign of her till night," the father said.
At around 8.30pm, the victim's parents filed at police complaint at the Swaroop Nagar police station, following which an FIR under section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the IPC was registered.
Police officials said the CCTV footage of the area showed the minor accompanying the accused and getting into his car.
"We showed the footage to the parents and they identified him as their landlord who lives near their home. Then we began searching for him."A police official privy to the investigation said.
"The accused even offered to help us search for her..." the father said.
In a statement, DCP (Outer North) Ravi Kumar Singh said that while searching for the accused, police found that he had been injured in an accident on 15 December and was not in a condition for his statement to be recorded.
Police are probing if it was an accident or if he tried to hurt himself “intentionally”.
Once he was declared "fit" to make a statement, the accused reportedly confessed to have raped and murdered the victim.
"The accused said he took the victim in the car and drove to different locations to find an isolate place. He then raped her inside the car. He got scared and decided to kill her. After killing her, he confessed to have thrown her body in the Munak canal," a police official said.
Police officials said that when questioned, the accused was giving conflicting statements.
"Initially the accused said that he had strangled her, but later said that he threw her in the canal. We will be booking him under Section 375 (rape) of the IPC only once the body is recovered and we do the post-mortem," the official confirmed.
'We Need Justice. This Should Not Happen To Anyone Else': Victim's Father
On Tuesday, the victim's family and neighbours staged a protest at the GT Karnal Road, demanding punishment for the accused.
"What happened to my daughter was unfair. I cannot imagine the pain she went through. We are devastated. We want strict punishment for the accused. No one should ever go through what we did. We need justice. Before that, all I want is for the police to find my daughter's body so we can perform her last rites," the father told The Quint.
Since 17 December, DCP (outer north) Singh said that five divers have been deputed to search for the body of the girl in the canal.
Meanwhile, taking cognisance of the crime, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal issued a notice to the area station house officer (SHO), seeking a detailed report of the investigation by 22 December.
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