Delhi rape-murder: 9-year-old's father 'broke the door, found suitcase moving'

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A nine-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted, murdered and stuffed into a bag in northeast Delhi's Dayalpur on Saturday evening, HT reported.

As per the report, the accused, a 30-year-old neighbour, is on the run and the police are on the lookout for him. The victim's father told the media that the suitcase in which his daughter was stuffed had been moving when he found it.

The incident has sparked protests in Dayalpur area by the family members and others on Sunday, the report added. Folowing this, police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in the area to maintain law and order.

The victim, a Class 5 student at a local government school, had gone out of the house at 7 pm to give ice to a relative who lives nearby. When she did not return home by 7.30 pm, the family reached out to their relative to ask for her whereabouts, only to find out that she never reached their home. The family then began looking for the girl, the report added.

“Nearly half an hour into the search, my 13-year-old niece informed me that a woman in the neighbourhood had seen my daughter going inside a six-storey building to deliver keys to a man living on the second floor,” the girl’s father was quoted by HT.

When they reached the second floor of that building and broke open the door, they found a suitcase lying on the floor. There were injury marks on the victim’s lips and face. The girl was rushed to a hospital where she was declared dead, the report added.

The victim’s father said he found the suitcase was “moving”, reported the Indian Express.

“I went there, and the door was locked. When I broke the lock, I found a suitcase that was moving. I opened it and found my daughter inside. I took her to a nursing home nearby. They asked me to take her to a bigger hospital,” the Indian Express report quoted the father as saying.

As per the report, the accused deliberately threw his house keys on the road and asked the girl to come upstairs to deliver them.

Joint Commissioner of Police (east) Vijay Kumar said they were informed about the incident at 08:41 pm on Saturday, after which they reached the spot. “Prima facie, doctors observed visible injuries on her face and alleged sexual assault,” the HT report quoted Joint Commissioner of Police as saying.