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Body of north Delhi rape victim fished out of canal
The accused — a 52-year-old man who owned the house the girl’s family rented — threw the girl in the canal alive
The body of a nine-year-old girl, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in outer north Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar, was recovered from the Munak canal on Thursday — a week after the incident and after a four-day-long search operation, police officers said.
The search for the girl’s body began on December 17, and Deputy commissioner of police (outer north) Ravi Kumar Singh said the body was recovered around 9am on Thursday.
“The body, which was bloated, was found stuck to the mesh at the end of the canal close to the Haiderpur plant,” said DCP Singh.
An investigator associated with the case said they suspected that the accused — a 52-year-old man who owned the house the girl’s family rented — threw the girl in the canal alive.
“It’s suspected that she drowned, but a medical board has been formed to conduct the post mortem which will be carried out on Friday. The board will share the final cause of death,” said the officer, requesting anonymity.
DCP Singh said that five divers from the outer north district were initially working to recover the body from the canal.
“Later, two more expert divers from Khajuri Khas were asked to join the operation. On Wednesday, a team from the National Disaster Response Force was called in, and brought a motor boat. The boat churned the water and the body which is suspected to have been sunk deep came up and got stuck to the mesh,” he said.
Meanwhile, the girl’s father said that they finally got some closure with the recovery of the girl’s body.
“There was hope that she may be alive till her body was not found but we also knew she was dead because the man had said he’d killed her. We want the strictest punishment for this man who committed such a horrific crime,” he said.
According to police, the parents filed a report around 8.30pm on December 12 at Swaroop Nagar police station that the girl, a resident of Nangli Poona, had been kidnapped.
The accused, identified as Sandeep Rana, told police on interrogation that he went to the victim’s house on December 12 at 2pm and saw she was alone.
“He said he took her in his car, raped her in the vehicle, and killing her. He said he threw the girl’s body in the Munak canal,” the officer added.
