Delhi

CM orders probe into alleged rape-murder of Dalit girl

Staff Reporter

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday met with the family of the nine-year-old Dalit girl and ordered a magisterial enquiry into her death following an alleged sexual assault.

Kejriwal also assured the family of all possible support from the Delhi Government and announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the girl.

In a tweet, Kejriwal said that the Government will appoint top lawyers to ensure the accused persons are punished. “Our girl cannot come back. The injustice done to the family is unfortunate and cannot be compensated, but the Government will give Rs 10 lakh to them and order a magisterial inquiry into the matter,” he told reporters after meeting the family. “There is a need to strengthen law and order in Delhi. I appeal to the Central Government to take firm steps in this direction,” he said.

The parents of the girl accompanied by hundreds of locals were staging a protest near the site of the incident in Old Nangal area in southwest Delhi, demanding capital punishment for the accused.

The girl used to live 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.

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 that the police would make a case out of it and during the post-mortem, doctors would steal the girl's organs, so it was better to cremate her.