New Delhi,
September 11: While taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the
police in connection with the sensationalised Rape, Murder and Cremation case of
a 9-year-old dalit minor girl by a Priest and 3 other employees of a crematorium
which happened in Delhi Cantonment locality recently, a local city court has posted
September 29 as the date for the first hearing.
Additional
Sessions Judge Ashutosh Kumar has listed the matter for hearing on September 29,
and issued warrants against all the arrested accused in the case. The police
have charged four accused a Priest, Radhey Shyam, and 3 other employees of the crematorium
in Nangal village, namely Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan, in the
case. All accused are currently in judicial custody.
This case
had created a lot of furore in the capital city where the Union Home Ministry
is directly in charge of law and order. Even the FIR and nabbing of the accused
occurred after a lot of protests. Common citizens, women’s rights
organisations, activists, intelligentsia and all right-thinking people along with leaders of all political parties except the one in charge of the Union
government sought justice for the deceased child and the assurance of stronger law enforcement
in the city, as a result of the initial inaction by the police.
It is learnt
that the police had constituted a special team to investigate the case under
the supervision of senior officers and all the technical and other evidence
were well analyzed. None of the four accused has received a clean chit and the
SIT has got sufficient evidence to charge them. The investigation also revealed
that the priest, Radhey Shyam – the prime accused, was habitual of watching
porn and also used to get massage regularly from the deceased girl.
Sources in police
say recreation of the crime scene by experts showed no sign of a short circuit in
the water cooler. In the initial stage of questioning, the accused claimed the
victim died because of electrocution.
The charge
sheet has been filed under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal
intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), read with sections of the
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the SC/ST Act.
Earlier the case was transferred to the crime branch for speedy investigation and charge sheet by the Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana.