New Delhi: “Mother I am fine and doing well,” were the last comments that the mom of 13-year-old girl heard. Then she came to know that she had been raped and killed in Gurgaon. The girl’s father has alleged that his landlady’s brother Praveen Verma, along with others, killed his daughter. The gruesome murder took place when the girl had gone to his house in the Haryana city. She was taken there by the landlady as her sister-in-law had given birth, he said in his complaint to the Narela police station here.
“We trusted them. This was the first time she was going out alone. She never even went out to play. I thought my daughter would be safe and I trusted my landlord’s wife,” said the Dalit girl’s mother. She works as a domestic help and is a resident of Narela in north Delhi.
The perpetrators must be hanged, said the grieving parents as they demanded justice. “Mummy main theek hoon… mujhe yahan achche se rakha hai (Mother I am fine here and they are taking care of me). Those were her words,” the mother said recalling her last conversation with the 13-year-old.
On the father’s complaint, a case under sections 302 (murder) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and provisions of the SC/ST Act was registered at Narela. But more sections were added after the Gurgaon Police said that sexual assault was confirmed in the post-mortem report.
In the FIR registered with police, the girl’s father said, “On July 17, my landlord’s wife said that her sister-in-law has given birth to a child and she was taking my daughter along with her to her brother’s home in Gurgaon. She also said that my daughter would stay there and could play with the daughter of her brother.”
However, around 3.00pm on August 23, the father was informed by his landlord that his daughter has died, the FIR states. Around 7.00pm, they took the body in a private ambulance to the girl’s Narela residence for cremation, the FIR stated.
When the father got suspicious, he made a call and Narela police station staff reached the spot, and took the body to the Babu Jagjivan Ram hospital in Jahangirpuri, it stated.
Verma has been arrested and investigation is underway, police said.
The girl, a class VII student, has three siblings and she was interested in studies and wanted to earn a living for herself. But owing to lockdown and lack of a smart phone, she and her siblings were not able to attend online classes for the last one year, an acquaintance said.
