Delhi: Girl, 9, Abducted, Raped And Killed; Where Is The Fear?

In a shameful incident, a nine-year-old girl was abducted, raped and then strangled to death by a 52-year-old man who was her landlord. Happened in Delhi's Swaroop Nagar, the man lured the girl for a car ride when she was playing outside her house. After murdering her, he dumped her body in a secluded canal. The accused has confessed his crime but the girl's parents are demanding that he should be sentenced to death. 

According to reports, the accused was the landlord of the girl's parents who are factory labourers living in a rented house. He lives in a separate house in the same locality- Nagli Puna Village.

Details of the incident

On December 12, the accused lured the girl into sitting with him in his car for a ride. Then, he took her to an isolated place where he raped her inside the car. After raping her, he strangulated the girl to death. 

He then dumped her body in a secluded canal in Munak at around 6:30 pm and returned home by 7:30 pm. The investigators told media that the CCTV footage showed that the girl was kidnapped near a closed godown. The family identified the man who kidnapped her as their landlord. 

Investigation is going on to locate the girl's body. “Six divers have been pressed into service to fish out the body of the victim which has still not been traced,” a police official said.

When the Police approached the landlord's home to arrest him, his family said that he had met an accident on December 15 while riding a scooter. The Police then approached the hospital where he was admitted. However, the doctors didn't allow them to interrogate the accused because he was suffering from multiple fractures. 

The landlord booked under several sections

When the landlord's situation improved, he confessed his crime on December 17. According to the Police, the landlord was frightened after raping the girl and so he killed her. On Tuesday, he was also taken to the crime scene. An FIR has been lodged against him. He has been charged under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The saddened family of the girl is demanding capital punishment for the gruesome crime that killed their daughter. “My daughter was playing outside our house when he kidnapped her. He must be hanged to death for his act,” said the victim’s father. 

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has taken suo-motu cognizance of the case. It has issued a notice to the SHO of Swaroop Nagar demanding a copy of the FIR and the details of the accused. Protests have also erupted in the area demanding justice for the girl. 

Backlog POSCO cases in Delhi will delay the justice

But do you know? Delhi needs 27 years to clear POCSO backlog cases. According to a report, as of January 2023, 9,108 cases are pending. Even if no more cases are added, Delhi will take 27 years to clear this backlog. So despite fast-track courts to acquit POCSO cases, India has only a 3 per cent conviction rate in such cases. How and when will the girl get justice? If the justice is delayed, it is denied. 

The man very easily killed off a small girl to save his life. To hide his fear of being caught for the rape, he strangulated the girl. But why didn't this fear kick him before raping her? Why was he so confident as to abduct a girl from a public place to rape her? Did he not fear the law?

The problem with our society 

It takes a few minutes to commit rape but it takes years in our society to punish the crime. So the fear factor doesn't hit the rapists. But it becomes a disadvantage for those who are targetted- the deceased, survivors and their family members. They either have to remain silent about the crime or fight for years for justice. And this fight is not just in the court but also outside it where society makes it difficult for them to survive through its moral policing. 

The girl who was raped and killed was a minor. How cruel and corrupt does one have to be to misuse a child's innocence and torture her to death? This only shows that the limit to gender-based violence is only being pushed farther away. Day by day cases of crime and cruelty against women are increasing and the efforts to curb them are failing to show any fruitful result. In our society, a girl is not safe in her home. How will she be safe in other places? But what is being done to stop this apart from controlling and imposing restrictions on women? It is time for some strict actions against those who believe that women are walking sexual objects. 

Views expressed are the author's own.