The court passed the order after hearing the petition by her parents seeking a court-monitored SIT probe. The parents also sought additional security. THE DELHI High Court Tuesday directed Delhi Police to file a status report on investigation into the death of a nine-year-old Dalit girl at a crematorium in Southwest Delhi on August 1. The girl’s family alleges she was raped, killed and forcibly cremated, but since only her charred remains could be recovered from the pyre, a medical examination proved inconclusive. Four people have been arrested.
The court passed the order after hearing the petition by her parents seeking a court-monitored SIT probe. The parents also sought additional security.
Advocate Jitendera Kumar Jha, representing the petitioners, told the court there was a delay of over five hours in police reaching the crime scene.
Jha also submitted that the parents were taken to the police station and throughout the night were “tortured and pressured to compromise the case”. The FIR was registered only on the next day after 9 am, he added.
Delhi’s Standing Counsel (Criminal) Sanjay Lao, representing the police, told the court that the investigation has been transferred to the Crime Branch and the DCP has already constituted an SIT. Lao also told the court that the victim’s family was provided with round-the-clock security.
“Both the prayers are already fulfilled,” Lao submitted.
The court did not agree with Jha’s submission and said the issues can be raised by the petitioners before the lower court too. “When they have constituted the SIT and they have taken the investigation to the Crime Branch, then, in that case, let them do their work. Let them file a report. You cannot presuppose that they will not do the work,” observed Justice Yogesh Khanna.
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