Man rapes, burns girl, attends last rites

NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old girl was found murdered and her body including her private parts partially burnt, inside her house in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar area on Thursday afternoon.

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A 25-year-old tailor, Danish, who was arrested for the murder, reportedly told the police that he tortured and raped the girl, before smothering her to death and then burnt her private parts to cover up the act. The police, however, have not added sections of rape to the FIR and are awaiting the autopsy report.

Sources said Danish had been stalking the girl for the last one month, seeking sexual favours, but she had refused to comply.

According to the police, the girl returned home from school at 1 pm on Thursday afternoon and was alone as her brother and mother were at work. As she was going to change her school uniform, Danish barged inside the house and locked the door from inside. He allegedly gagged the girl and raped her.

When the girl resisted, he allegedly slapped her and then smothered her to death. To cover up the sexual assault, Danish then fetched kerosene oil from the house and poured it on her private parts, before setting her afire.

“The incident came to fore after locals saw smoke emanating from the house and informed the police,” DCP, East, Rishi Pal said.

The girl’s mother, who works at a jeans factory, told the police that she knew about Danish stalking other women in the locality, but never thought that her daughter may be a victim.

“She said she had no idea that he was harassing her daughter. She also said that she had heard about Danish stalking women and misbehaving with them, but was completely unaware about her daughter being a victim,” a senior police officer said.

During investigation, it was revealed that accused Danish was asking for sexual favours from the girl.

“Evidence was collected and sufficient proof came on record to suggest that Danish had committed the murder. He was arrested. Danish is a physically well-built person with intimidating appearance having an old long cut mark on his face and several self-inflicted old cut marks on inner side of his arms. He is of quarrelsome nature and used to bully others in the locality to maintain his dominance,” Pal said.

Investigation into the case also revealed that Danish and his brother Ashu, had allegedly raped another 16-year-old friend of the deceased. “Another girl, who was a friend to the deceased, came forward to register a complaint after this case came to light. She alleged that Danish used to stalk her and his brother raped her a few months ago. She said she was scared of complaining about him as the duo had threatened her of dire consequences,” Pal said.