Day after a 25-year-old man was lynched by a mob for trying to rape a four-year-old girl in East Delhi’s Pandav Nagar area on Saturday, family members of the girl on Sunday claimed that their child suffered no external injuries. Enraged that the man was trying to exploit the child, the locals took up bricks and thrashed him brutally instead of handing him over to the police.
Police on Sunday said that based on the family’s complaint that the accused Sanjay alias Golu had allegedly attempted to sexually assault the minor girl at Jheel Park area in Pandav Nagar. It was here that a crowd spotted him, thrashed him following which he died.
The mother of the girl said their daughter told them that Golu had neither disrobed her nor molested her but added that his action raised suspicions.
“My daughter told us that she was not disrobed. Even though he took her away, he did not try to force himself on her. She is not talking much after that day of the incident as she is under shock having witnessed the subsequent thrashing,” added the mother.
Meanwhile, the girl's grandmother added that he disappeared with the child in a matter of minutes. “She was playing near the place where I sell vegetables. She said she wanted to buy chowmein from a shop which is just a couple of steps away from there. I gave her five rupees to buy noodles. He appeared out of nowhere and took her away,” said the grandmother.
A senior police officer said that the mob which attacked Sanjay is yet to be identified. “We have added sections of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the rape case but are yet to identify any member of the mob.”
Hours after the incident, the park wore a deserted look. When asked who witnessed the incident, no one admitted to being present at the spot at the time the man was lynched. However, people added that they heard from others after reaching the park “after the incident”.
Ravi, a local alleged that Sanjay first took the minor girl to the park from a broken wall instead of the main entrance and then walked for some time. He then kept the girl on the floor next to the lake inside the park and removed a cloth he had wrapped around the lower portion of his body.
“It was then that somebody spotted him. They dragged him to an electric pole on which the lights are mounted and started thrashing him. They used stones to beat him, even before he could explain himself. The incident took place late evening when there are few people present and even then most of them are drug addicts,” added Ravi.