By PTI
NEW DELHI: Members of the Bhim Army, a Dalit group, took out a candle march near India Gate on Wednesday, demanding capital punishment for the guilty in the rape and murder case of a nine-year-old girl in the Old Nangal area in Southwest Delhi.
Over 100 members of the group assembled near India Gate in the evening, lit candles and raised slogans demanding justice for the girl, who was allegedly cremated without the approval of her parents.
One of the protesters alleged that the girl was “gangraped, killed and later cremated without the family’s approval to destroy evidence”.
“This is not a petty crime. This is a targeted crime. These criminals have got political protection,” he alleged.
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Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi government will order a magisterial inquiry into the death of the Dalit girl following alleged sexual assault.
He also announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the girl.
The parents of the girl, accompanied by hundreds of locals, have been staging a protest near the site of the incident, demanding capital punishment for the accused.
The girl lived with her parents in a rented house in front of a crematorium.
At around 5.30 pm on Sunday, she went to get cold water from a cooler at the crematorium, her parents said.
Around 6 pm, the crematorium’s priest, Radhey Shyam, and two-three others called the girl’s mother to the spot.
Showing the girl’s body to her mother, they claimed that she got electrocuted while getting water from the cooler.
It was alleged that the priest and the others dissuaded the woman from making a PCR call, saying police will make a case out of it and during the post-mortem, doctors will steal the girl’s organs, so it was better to cremate her.
Four people, including the priest, have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The accused have been booked for murder and rape.