Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, met with the family of a 9-year-old girl who was reportedly raped and murdered by four individuals at a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment in south-west Delhi on Sunday and ordered a magisterial probe.
Kejriwal also announced financial help of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the minor girl.
“Met the girl’s family, shared their pain, will give financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh. There will be a magisterial inquiry into the matter. Top lawyers will be engaged to get the culprits punished. The Central government should take strict steps to improve law and order in Delhi, we will cooperate fully,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi after visiting the girl’s family.
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A board of three doctors will conduct an autopsy of the charred remains of the girl.
The accused, including the 55-year-old priest of the crematorium, were booked under sections pertaining to rape, murder and threatening charges, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the SC/ST Act. They have been reportedly sent to jail.
Though the accused have maintained that the girl died of electrocution while fetching water from an electric cooler, the family have alleged that the suspects hurriedly cremated the body after frightening the family off from informing the police about her death.
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The girl lived with her parents in a rented house in front of a crematorium. On Sunday at around 5.30 PM, she went to get cold water from a cooler at the crematorium after informing her mother, her parents said. Around 6 PM, the crematorium’s priest, Radhey Shyam, and two-three other people, known to the girl’s mother, called her there and showed her daughter’s body claiming that she got electrocuted while getting water from the cooler.
There were burn marks between her left wrist and elbow, and her lips were also blue, according to police. It was alleged the priest and the others dissuaded her mother from making a PCR call, saying police will make a case out of it and during the post-mortem, doctors will steal the girl’s organs, so it was better to cremate her. Police had on Monday said that based on the statement of the victim’s mother, rape charges have been added in the FIR.
