Photo: Collected
Police have arrested a young man and three teenage boys on charges of brutally murdering a 16-year-old girl after gang-raping her in the Indian capital Delhi. Indian media outlet NDTV reported this.
After being gang-raped, the girl was stabbed to death and her body was dumped in an open field. There, dogs ate some parts of the body.
According to NDTV, the girl’s decomposed body was recovered on 13 September from an open field in the Swaroop Nagar area of north-west Delhi. Local residents informed the police after seeing dogs tearing at and eating body parts lying in the field.
On reaching the spot, even police officers were stunned to see the disfigured and mutilated body. One hand of the body was severed from it and various parts had been eaten by dogs.
Because of the injuries and decomposition, it could not even be confirmed at first whether the body was that of a woman or a man. Later, a medical examination confirmed the rape.
The police investigation has revealed that the dead girl and the four arrested were previously acquainted. Police said they were roaming around together in a tempo on 11 September.
According to police, after all of them drank alcohol together inside the vehicle, the accused sexually assaulted the girl and stabbed her to death. They then dumped the body in the field in Swaroop Nagar and fled.
However, no missing complaint was filed by the girl’s family.
Relatives told police that the girl often left home without telling anyone and returned after a few days.
As there were no eyewitnesses to the incident and the identities of the accused were initially unknown, police analysed footage from more than 50 CCTV cameras in that area and on surrounding routes.
In the footage analysis, a tempo was seen passing near the spot close to the probable time of the incident. Although the vehicle’s number was not clear because of the darkness, investigators identified the vehicle’s route.
Later, through CCTV tracking, the vehicle was traced in a drive conducted in the middle of the night between 15 and 16 September, and the driver was detained.
On the basis of information given by the driver, the four people involved in this crime were arrested. Among them, the adult accused is 19-year-old Shivam alias Sudama alias Chuchu, a resident of Khadda Colony. The other three are aged 16 and 17.
Police have seized from them two knives used in the murder, the clothes worn at the time of the incident and the tempo.
A case has been filed against them under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Police said the work of reviewing the evidence and forensic proof of the entire incident is under way.
