The Delhi Police cracked the case of a 16-year-old girl who was gang-raped and stabbed to death in Swaroop Nagar within 72 hours, using a tattoo, CCTV footage, and a distinctive design on a tempo to identify the accused.
Delhi's Nirbhaya horror rerun!
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Delhi Police crack rape and murder case in 72 hours. Three juveniles among four apprehended in Delhi case.
▶️2 knives, clothes & tempo recovered by cops. #DelhiPolice #Gangrape #DelhiGangrape #ITVideo | @_anshuls @Jessica_goel pic.twitter.com/e9bC7oMPEu
The girl’s badly mutilated body was found in a field in Khadda Colony on 13th September, two days after the crime. The body was in such poor condition that police initially could not determine whether the victim was a man or a woman. Her skull and ribcage were visible, one arm was missing, and parts of the body had been eaten by stray dogs.
Tattoo gave police the first major clue
The investigation took a major turn when an assistant sub-inspector noticed a tattoo of three stars in a row on the left arm while examining the body at the mortuary. This made police consider that the remains could belong to a woman.
The victim’s family, who live in Tri Nagar, had not filed a missing-person complaint. Police said they believed she might have gone out with friends, as she had done before. Her family later helped identify her through photographs, one of which showed the same three-star tattoo.
Police are now considering an ossification test to confirm her age, as the family did not have identification documents.
CCTV trail led police to tempo
Police examined more than 50 CCTV cameras and found suspicious movement of a tempo near the field around 3.30 am on 11th September. The footage showed four people travelling in the vehicle. The tempo stopped near the spot, switched off its headlights for around 15 minutes, and one person got out.
Although the registration number could not be seen, police noticed a distinctive design on the left side of the tempo. On 15th September, teams began searching for vehicles matching the design and traced one around 1.30 am on 16th September.
The tempo owner told police that his younger brother also drove the vehicle. Investigators found that the younger brother’s build matched the person seen in the CCTV footage. During questioning, he gave information about the other people involved. Four people, including three minors, were taken into custody by the morning of 16th September.
What happened to the girl
Police said the 17-year-old main accused knew the girl. She had gone to meet him on the evening of 10th September. According to the police investigation, he and his associates raped her and later decided to kill her after she said she would report them to the police.
The girl was stabbed multiple times, and her body was taken to a field, where it was covered with leaves and mud. Two knives, clothes and the tempo used in the crime were recovered.
The case has been registered under the POCSO Act and BNS. Police are examining forensic and technical evidence to establish the exact role of each accused and check whether anyone else was involved.
