Nine-year-old girl abducted, raped and murdered by landlord in Delhi

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, raped and then murdered by her 52-year-old landlord, who dumped her body in a canal in outer Delhi's Swaroop Nagar, police said on Tuesday.

The police have launched a search to recover the girl's body.

The victim's family has demanded capital punishment for the accused, who has been arrested. The locals and her family members staged a protest in their locality to demand justice.

The accused had allegedly lured the girl on the pretext of giving her a car ride on December 12 while she was playing outside her residence, police said.

According to the investigators, the accused then took her to an isolated area where he allegedly raped her in his car. To hide his crime, he strangled her and then dumped her body in Munak Canal around 6.30 pm.

The accused, who stays in the same locality in Nangli Puna village in a separate house a few metres away, returned to his house around 7.30 pm.

The victim's family had been staying at the rented accommodation for nearly a year. After the girl went missing on December 12, the police were informed and they began scanning the CCTV footage of the area and they developed a suspicion regarding the accused.

"According to the CCTV footage, we got to know that the girl was kidnapped from near a closed godown. The family members identified the man, who was taking her with him as their landlord," said a police officer.

When the police reached the house of the accused for an investigation, they got to know that he had met with an accident on December 15 when he was on a scooter.

"He was taken to a hospital in Rohini. After getting information, a team from the police station also reached the spot. But the doctors told the police team that he had multiple fractures and won't be able to give his statement. A team was deputed at the hospital to keep a strict vigil on the accused," said a senior police officer.

On December 17, the doctors declared him fit for statement and the accused confessed his crime during interrogation. He told the police that he had abducted the girl, took her to some isolated place where he raped her.

"During interrogation, the accused told the police that he was in fear after committing the crime and thus he killed her by strangulating her. On Tuesday, we took the accused to the crime scene. Total six divers have been pressed into service to fish out the body of the victim which has still not been traced," said the police officer.

The accused's previous antecedents are being checked, the officer added.

The victim's parents work in a factory as labourers and live in a rented accommodation.

"My daughter was playing outside our house when he kidnapped her. He must be hanged to death for his act," the victim's father told PTI.

An FIR has been registered under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, police said.

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has taken suo-moto cognisance of the case and issued a notice to the SHO of the Swaroop Nagar police station demanding a copy of the FIR registered in the matter along with details of the accused arrested in the case.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal has sought a detailed action taken report by December 22.

According to latest National Records Crime Bureau (NRCB) data, 315 boys and 260 girls in the 6-12 age group were kidnapped in 2022, while 66 boys and 45 girls were kidnapped in the 0-6 age group.

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