A bone ossification test was conducted at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and it came to light that the accused was an adult (Representational)
Months after concluding their investigation into the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl inside a madrasa in Ghaziabad, the Special Task Force (STF) of Delhi Police’s crime branch Tuesday filed a chargesheet before a Delhi court.
As per the chargesheet, the accused initially tried to mislead investigators by claiming he was a juvenile. But suspicion arose after the case was transferred to the STF, which found his Aadhaar card inside the madrasa, said a senior police officer.
“A bone ossification test was conducted at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and it came to light that he was an adult. He was initially sent to a correction home after he was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, but the JJB then ordered that the accused be tried as an adult,” the officer said.
Police also discovered that he would talk to the 10-year-old over the phone by posing as a girl. “He told police that he saw the girl for the first time at his uncle’s house. He allegedly started calling her, posing as his sister. He also called her on the day she was kidnapped and asked her to meet him,” the officer claimed.
Justifying the arrest of the madrasa’s cleric, the investigation officer said he was arrested under Section 21(2) of the POCSO Act. “He met the girl and asked the accused to drop her home. Instead, the accused held her captive. Section 21(2) is a penal provision, and any person being in charge of any institution is liable to be prosecuted criminally for failure to report the commission of offence under sections 19(1) and 20 of the Act,” said police.