Death of 3 Delhi sisters: Hunt on for missing father to unravel starvation mystery

Three sisters, aged two, four and eight, were found dead in east Delhi’s Mandawali area on Tuesday.

Delhi Police has intensified its hunt for the father of three minor girls who died due to hunger in east Delhi’s Mandawali area on Tuesday night.

The residence in the east Delhi neighbourhood where the siblings, aged 8, 4 and 2 years, died of starvation. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The father of the girls, a labourer and a rickshaw puller, has been missing since Saturday night when the family had moved in a room in Mandawali after their shanty was damaged following heavy rains.

Deputy commissioner of police (east), Pankaj Kumar Singh said that four police teams comprising at least 20 policemen from the east Delhi are trying to trace the father. Police are trying to get in touch with people known to the man and teams have been sent to construction sites and labour chowk where the man might have gone in search of work.

“The area has no CCTVs. We are completely relying on human intelligence. More than 50 locals who claimed to have last seen the father, have been questioned . We are also looking for him in areas where labourers are hired from in Old Delhi,” Singh said.

Police also contacted the man from whom the father, Mangal Singh, used to rent the cycle rickshaw to earn his living. “He told police that Mangal often would get drunk after work hours and forget where he had parked the rickshaw,” said the DCP, adding that there was no complaint regarding theft of the rickshaw that Mangal was riding.