Minor dies of suspected acid ingestion in Delhi

A 16-year-old girl died under suspicious circumstances in east Delhi's Geeta Colony area, prompting police to investigate allegations of sexual assault and forced acid ingestion, an official said on Sunday.

According to the police, the statements given by the girl's mother are also contradictory and are being probed. On July 3, the girl, a resident of Geeta Colony, was married to a 22-year-old man from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh in the presence of members of both families, they said.

“The two families are distant relatives. On October 29, last year, a medico-legal case (MLC) was received at the Geeta Colony police station from Maulana Azad Hospital, Delhi, about the girl. The MLC mentioned acid ingestion and did not record any history of assault,” a police officer said.

At the time, the girl and her mother had told doctors and police that she had consumed acid on her own after an argument with her husband, he said. “However, on January 23, the girl's mother lodged a fresh complaint at Geeta Colony police station, alleging that her daughter had been sexually assaulted by her husband and was forced to consume acid on October 29,” the officer added. In view of the age of the girl at the time of marriage, police registered FIR on January 23, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 65 (rape) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at Geeta Colony police station, officials said. The victim later gave a contradictory version regarding the ingestion of acid during her statement before a magistrate. Based on her statement, appropriate sections of law were invoked, and the matter was probed from all angles, they added.

“In the alleged incident of acid ingestion, the girl was not admitted to any hospital for a prolonged period.

Instead, she remained at her parental home. On February 7, her father took her to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital in an emergency condition, where doctors declared her dead,” the police officer said.

He further said that an autopsy was conducted on Sunday at the hospital, but the surgeon conducting the post-mortem could not arrive at a definitive opinion regarding the cause of death, citing the considerable time gap and the long duration since the alleged acid ingestion.