Minor girl gang-raped, killed in Delhi’s Narela, body found in shut shop

A 14-year-old mentally challenged girl was kidnapped by two men, who confined her in a plastic cap manufacturing unit, gagged and gang-raped her before strangling her to death using her clothes in a village near Narela Industrial Area on the night of February 12, police said.

The two suspects killed the girl because she knew them, and had told them that she would tell her parents about the crime, an officer associated with the investigation said. He added that after raping and murdering the girl, the two men covered her body with cow dung cakes, locked the shop from outside and fled.

The crime came to light and the girl’s semi-decomposed body was found only a week later, when the owner of the manufacturing unit returned from his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi, and noticed a foul smell coming from inside when he tried to open the unit, the officer said.

One of the suspects, 32, was arrested from the village on Sunday night even as he was preparing to flee to Mumbai, and the second, who worked and lived in the manufacturing unit, is on the run, a second officer said. Both suspects are married and have children, the officer added.

The police have withheld the names of the suspects to protect the identity of the girl. According to them, she lived with her parents and elder brother in a rented room, just about 10 metres away from the place where she was gang-raped and killed.

Local residents said the girl was mentally challenged, and had moved to the rented 10×8 feet room, which did not have a kitchen or bathroom, with her parents and brother nearly one and a half months ago. Her family members work as labourers in factories in Narela and Bawana industrial areas, the residents said. The girl remained at home and played with children in the neighbourhood, they said.

A 65-year-old neighbour, who runs a grocery shop near the crime spot, said the girl went missing on February 12 evening. “Her brother came looking for her in the night and the next morning. Knowing her mental condition, the family members thought she may have gone to the village and would return on her own.” the man said asking not to be named.

“I asked them to inform the police on February 13, but they told me that they had gone to a nearby police chowki, where the policemen asked them to lodge a complaint at the Narela Industrial Area police station. They searched for her for the next two days but failed. I again asked her to inform the police. On February 15, they went to the police station and lodged a missing person’s complaint,” he said.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer-north) Brijendra Kumar Yadav said a case of kidnapping was registered immediately on the complaint by the girl’s family. The local police went to the village along with her parents and carried out a detailed enquiry, he said.

A third investigator associated with the case said at least two teams began working on the case, since it involved a minor and mentally challenged girl who could have easily fallen prey to sexual predators. Many people, especially tenants who consumed liquor and drugs, were questioned but no concrete leads could be found about the girl’s whereabouts, the officer said.

Around 1pm on February 19, the local police received information about a person reporting foul smell emanating from his small manufacturing unit in the village. A police team reached there and went inside the shop, where they found the missing girl’s semi decomposed and disrobed body under a heap of cow dung cakes kept in gunny bags.

The body was shown to the girl’s father who identified her as his missing daughter. The body was then shifted to the mortuary at Babu Jagjivan Ram hospital. Forensic experts were called in who collected evidence from the spot, the second officer said

After doctors opined that the girl was gang-raped before murder, the police added murder and gang-rape sections to the first information report (FIR) under the relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the officer said.

DCP Yadav said following the recovery of the girl’s body five more teams were formed to solve the case. “The teams questioned over 100 people in the village. The person who ran the business told us that his single employee, with whom he ran the unit, was also missing. Enquiries from the local residents led us to an eyewitness who saw the girl entering the unit with the employee and his friend, who lived in the village. We apprehended the second suspect when he was planning to leave the city for Mumbai,” the DCP said.

During interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime and was placed under arrest, the DCP said.

“The arrested man told the police that he and his accomplice in crime consumed alcohol at Metro Vihar around 7.30pm and planned the crime there. They returned to the manufacturing unit, and lured the girl inside on the pretext of giving her food. Then, they pulled the shutter down and gang-raped her. When they girl told them she knew them and that she would tell her parents about the crime, they strangled her to death with her clothes, locked the shop and fled,” DCP Yadav said.

The girl’s body was handed over to her parents on Sunday after the autopsy, and it was cremated the same day with the help of the police . Her family members on Monday went to Haridwar to perform the rituals related to her last rites.