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A fresh plea has been filed before the Delhi High Court on Monday seeking a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into a nine-year-old Dalit girl's alleged rape and murder in Delhi Cantt. It will be heard before the Delhi HC today. 

The plea also sought a judicial inquiry into the alleged lapses in administrative action, including the alleged delay in filing FIR in the case. 

The petitioners prayed for the following reliefs,

• Direct the respondents to provide adequate safety and security to the petitioners and the other witnesses of this case and/or
• That this Hon'ble court may graciously be please to constitute a Court monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) for investigating the instant case arising out of FIR No. 261/2021, PS Delhi Cantt and/or
•  Direct for a Judicial enquiry pertaining to lapses in the administrative action in this case.

It must be noted that according to the police officials on August 1, a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped and killed by a priest and three employees of a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment in southwest Delhi. A case was registered against four accused based on the statement by the child's mother, who alleged that her daughter was raped, murdered, and cremated without their consent.

The plea stated that after the incident the body of the victim daughter of the petitioner was thrown in the burning fire of the crematorium by the accused persons for the purpose of destroying the evidence of their sin.

It had come to the knowledge of the petitioners that after committing rape with the deceased daughter of the petitioner she was killed by the accused persons. However, when the mother of the deceased reached to the crematorium in search of her daughter, then she was told by the accused persons that her daughter died due to electrocution.

The petitioners in the plea asserted that the present situation demands that only a judicial probe of the matter can reveal the fact that as to,

1. “Why there was delay in reaching the police at the spot where the Police station is barely a kilometre away from the place of incident?
2. Why there was a delay in registration of FIR?
3. Why the petitioners were tortured and threatened in the police station to compromise the matter? Why the police failed to preserve the place of crime and vital evidences?
4. Why the administration failed to give protection to the petitioners and its witnesses?
5. Why the police failed to take Police Custody of the accused persons for the purpose of investigation in the initial 9 days of their arrest? Etc.”

The accused persons have been booked under Sections 302, 376, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, along with the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the. 

Last week, Delhi Police Investigating Officer informed a POCSO court that the disclosure statements of the four accused have revealed that Radhey Shyam and Kuldeep Singh had raped and killed the victim and while the remaining two accused, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Naryan, helped them in trying to cremate the deceased minor child. 

The IO further admitted that neither any statement of any eye-witness nor any other evidence, including medical or scientific, has been collected to confirm that the victim was raped. He also submitted that at this stage, he could not conclusively say whether the child was raped. After hearing detailed arguments, the court directed that an interim compensation of Rs. 2.5 lakh was awarded to the family of the victim. Also, the Special POCSO judge Ashutosh Kumar has now sent the four accused persons to judicial custody. 

[Case Title: Sunita & Anr. v. State of NCT of Delhi & Ors]