Accused in alleged rape, murder of minor girl remanded in police custody for 3 days

The four accused in the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl was remanded in the custody of the Delhi Police for three days. The girl died under suspicious circumstances on August 1 even as her parents alleged that she was raped and forcibly cremated by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal village.

New Delhi: The four accused in the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl was remanded in the custody of the Delhi Police for three days on Monday, officials said. The girl died under suspicious circumstances on August 1 even as her parents alleged that she was raped and forcibly cremated by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal village. The agitated locals, along with the parents of the girl, had blocked the road in the area demanding justice. However, police have cleared the stretch.

A senior police officer in the Crime Branch said they have got the four accused in their remand for three days and they will be interrogated. Last week, Crime Branch officials visited the crematorium ground twice. The police had earlier said that based on the statement of the victim's mother, the charge of rape was added in the FIR.

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The girl lived with her parents in a rented house in front of the crematorium. Around 5.30 pm on August 1, she went to get water from a cooler at the crematorium. Around 6 pm, the crematorium's priest Radhey Shyam and two-three others called the girl's mother to the spot. Showing the girl's body to her mother, they claimed that she got electrocuted while getting water. There were burn marks between her left wrist and elbow, and her lips were also blue.

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. The girl was cremated but subsequently, her parents alleged that it was done without their consent.

PTI