9-year-old girl raped, then cremated without parents' consent, priest and 3 others nabbed

New Delhi: In a gruesome incident, a nine-year-old girl from the Valmiki community was allegedly raped late on Sunday by a temple priest and his accomplices, who then allegedly forcibly cremated her by duping her mother in Northwest Delhi's Old Nangal, the Delhi Police said on Monday. As per police, on Sunday night at around 10:30 PM, they received a PCR call at the Delhi Cantt Police Station regarding the rape and death of a minor girl and her cremation. The call also added that around 200 villagers of the Old Nangal area had gathered at the Old Nangal Crematorium.

The victim lived with her parents at the Old Nangal Village in front of the crematorium. At around 5:30 pm, she went to fetch cold water from the water cooler at the crematorium after informing her mother about it, when the crime is suspected to have been committed.

Following this, at around 6 pm, the priest who conducts rituals at the crematorium, identified by police as one Radhey Shyam, and two to three other persons who were known to the victim's mother, Sunita Devi, called her to the crematorium and showed her the body of her daughter.

They told Devi that her daughter had been electrocuted while drinking water from the cooler. "She was also told that the victim even had burn marks between her left wrist and elbow and that her lips had turned blue," the police further said.

After the mother saw her daughter's condition, she was allegedly told and pressurised by the priest and his accomplices that if she made a PCR call regarding it, the police officials will make a case out of it and then doctors will steal her organs during postmortem and so it was a better option to cremate her, DCP(Southwest) Ingit Pratap Singh said.

Thereafter, when the girl was cremated, Sunita Devi and her husband, Mohan Lal, raised hue and cry and alleged that their girl was forcibly cremated without their consent. Moreover, a large crowd had gathered at the spot following which police were called. After police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control, the mother of the victim gave a police statement and a case was registered under the relevant sections of law and the priest Radhe Shyan was taken into custody while a forensics team and crime team were called to collect samples or evidence from the spot, officials said.

The police have said they have arrested three other men in the case and have added charges under the POCSO Act and for murder.