3-year-old kidnapped, raped & murdered in Delhi's Kapashera; accused held

NEW DELHI: A three-and-a-half-year-old girl was kidnapped, raped and murdered by her neighbour in southwest Delhi's Kapashera. The crime took place on May 22. The accused suffered gunshot injuries while attempting to escape from police custody after snatching a constable's pistol. The medical board conducting the postmortem confirmed rape on Friday.

Police received a police control room call at 8.51pm on Wednesday about a person calling about the kidnap of his daughter by a neighbour. "Her mother told us that at 6pm, her daughter was playing in front of their house. Around that time, Anil, who lives in the vicinity, took the girl with him,"a police officer said.

An extensive search was carried out to locate Anil and the girl, but when they couldn’t be found, a case for kidnapping was registered. Then, on CCTV footage, police saw Anil taking the girl towards a drain at 7.05pm. The same camera captured him returning without the girl at around 7.25pm.

Rohit Meena, DCP (Southwest), asked SHO Naveen Kumar to lead several probe teams. “During the technical investigation, we found Anil taking a bus to his home city of Kanpur. We began inspecting buses headed towards UP. After numerous searches, we finally apprehended him on a bus in Sohna,” Meena said.

On interrogation, Anil confessed to kidnapping and murdering the girl and dumping her body in a marshy drain on the border of Kapashera with Gurgaon. "Anil led the police team to the drain area, marked by dense bushes and heaps of garbage. After a search operation lasting for more than an hour in the dark, the body was finally discovered," the DCP said.

When in custody, Anil sensed an opportunity to escape and grabbed the loaded service revolver of a policeman. He fired at the police personnel, but the cops fired back in self-defence. After he was hit on his left leg, the suspect was rushed to a hospital.

The girl’s family has been living in rented quarters in Kapashera for five years. Kin revealed that Anil, a labourer and father of two girls who lived just a few houses away from their home, was well known to them. They said the child affectionately called Anil ‘uncle’ and the two frequently played together. Anil and the girl's father often shared meals too.

"On the day of the crime, when he asked the girl to accompany him, she did not refuse because she knew him,” an officer said. Cops suspect that the accused assaulted her and when the girl started crying loudly, he killed her to silence her. “Anil told us that he smothered her to death,” the officer said. The post-mortem report on Friday confirmed this.

A 54-year-old relative said the girl had come to her parent’s house only 5-6 months ago from her maternal grandparent’s house, where she lived. The relative added that when the family had been frantically looking for the missing girl, a neighbour informed the mother of seeing her leave with Anil.

The mother immediately called Anil, who assured her that he would return in 10 minutes. However, it soon became apparent that Anil had no intention of coming back and was, in fact, attempting to flee. “Anil killed our little girl by submerging her head in the drain,” the relative alleged.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)