While the boy says he is 17 years old, he is yet to produce documents to back this claim, police said
Police might conduct a bone ossification test to ascertain the age of the boy arrested for the alleged rape of a 10-year-old inside a madrasa in Sahibabad, Alok Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, has told The Indian Express. While the boy says he is 17 years old, he is yet to produce documents to back this claim, Kumar said.
The girl’s family, meanwhile, said they don’t know the accused. “She had gone to buy milk at 2.30 pm on April 21 when she was abducted… we don’t know the accused, neither does she,” said her maternal uncle. The boy has been apprehended under IPC section 376 and sections 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act. On Tuesday, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch.
While the family has alleged the girl was “gangraped”, police are yet to make any other arrests. A police source claimed, “We are investigating the role of three other adults… whether they were present during the alleged rape or not.”
Kumar said, “Since it has just been transferred to the Crime Branch, we are going through all allegations and evidence… the girl did give a statement in front of a magistrate and the MLC, too, points at sexual assault.” “The juvenile accused told us his age is 17 but he hasn’t been able to produce any documents… in that case, we might do an ossification test to ascertain his age,” he said.
The girl has undergone two medical examinations and is currently in a shelter home run by the Child Welfare Committee.
On Wednesday, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari and East Delhi MP Maheish Girri visited her family. Tiwari said he will “talk to the UP CM Yogi Adityanath for help in investigation since the madarsa is in UP”, while Girri said he has written to the union home minister “requesting a CBI inquiry”.