A father-son duo were arrested for allegedly killing a seven-year-old girl, who was found with a rope binding her from the neck to the feet in outer Delhi on Sunday.
The accused were arrested the next day after police tracked the scooter of the 21-year-old man, who allegedly lured the girl with chips and sexually assaulted her. His 51-year-old father caught the boy in the act, and allegedly conspired with him to murder the girl, police said.
“We booked the father under sections of murder after it was found that he helped his son. The exact sequence of events has not yet been ascertained and questioning is underway. The 21-year-old was previously involved in a POCSO case in 2016,” said DCP (Outer) Seju P Kuruvilla.
The victim had accompanied her younger sister to a local shop on Saturday night. When the younger girl returned home without her sibling, their mother went to look for her. The girl’s body was found by her father and uncle on Sunday morning, inside a park near their house.
As per the police, the accused spotted her in the locality and lured her with chips. He then took her to his house and sexually assaulted her, and when she cried for help, he gagged her till she lost consciousness, an officer said.
“When the boy’s father caught him in the act, he helped him strangulate the girl and also used a brick to smash her head,” the officer said.
The accused then looked for a briefcase and stuffed the girl’s body inside. They dumped the briefcase in a park late at night.
On Monday, family members of the girl protested outside the local police station and blocked roads, following which local police pacified the crowd.
“The father is so shocked that he is unable to speak. He refuses to come out of his room. At one point, police took us to the station and showed us the two men who killed her. We stopped our protest after that,” said the victim’s uncle.
Police said they tracked the accused by tracing his vehicle and making local enquiries after they found CCTV footage in which the accused was seen taking the child.
