Court takes note of charge sheet in rape, murder of Dalit girl

On Thursday, additional sessions judge Ashutosh Kumar took cognisance of the charge sheet filed against Radhey Shyam, the 55-year-old priest, and Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan. The accused are currently in judicial custody, and Narayan’s bail plea is pending adjudication.

A Delhi court has taken cognisance of the police charge sheet filed against a priest and his three accomplices for allegedly raping and killing a nine-year-old Dalit girl, whose body was found at a crematorium in the Delhi Cantonment area, sparking protests by activists and politicians in the national capital.

The accused claimed that she died of electrocution while fetching water from a cooler, but the family alleged that they hurriedly cremated her body after raping and killing her. (HT file photo. Representative image)

On Thursday, additional sessions judge Ashutosh Kumar took cognisance of the charge sheet filed against Radhey Shyam, the 55-year-old priest, and Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan. The accused are currently in judicial custody, and Narayan’s bail plea is pending adjudication.

Court sources said the judge took cognisance of all charges against the accused. They also said the investigation officer and prosecution have informed the court that a supplementary charge sheet, with all FSL (forensics science lab) reports, will likely be filed within 15 days.

The court directed all the accused to appear before it on September 29.

In the charge sheet, the police used sections of rape, wrongful confinement, murder, destruction of evidence, and relevant sections under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act against the four accused. The 400-page charge sheet was filed on August 28.

The girl was found dead by her parents at a local crematorium on August 1. The accused claimed that she died of electrocution while fetching water from a cooler, but the family alleged that they hurriedly cremated her body after raping and killing her.

Officials aware of the details of the police investigation said the Delhi Police in its investigation has maintained that the girl did not die of electrocution; and that two of them raped her inside the crematorium before murdering her.

HT learnt that the police based their findings on three aspects – confessions the four arrested men made to the investigating officer; circumstantial evidence; and revelations by people connected to the case.

To be sure, the confession of any person made before a police officer is not admissible as evidence before a court unless it is backed by other evidence. Only a confession before a judge is admissible as evidence against an accused.