Highly decomposed body, attacked by dogs: How Delhi teen's gangrape and murder came to light

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by a group of four teenagers, including three minors, in Delhi, with the case coming to light on Sunday.

The police said on Thursday that the accused allegedly dumped the minor victim’s body in a field in outer Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar. The investigators told HT that the crime appears to have taken place on Friday, but it only came to light on Sunday when the locals saw the girl's highly decomposed body being attacked by dogs and other animals.

Officials said that all the accused were in custody. These included a 19-year-old man and three minors, apprehended after police launched an overnight search operation.

According to the investigators, one of the accused, a 17-year-old boy, appeared to be the victim’s “friend”, and that she had gone to meet him. The other three accused were friends of the 17-year-old.

How the case came to light

Police said they received information on Sunday morning about a body lying in a field near Kushak Road in Delhi's Swaroop Nagar. The body was mutilated, with the right hand missing and the face and abdomen disfigured due to decomposition.

“Though it had been only two days, the body was decomposing very fast – likely due to how exposed it was to the elements. The face was not recognisable. The medical report confirmed rape, and we found eight wounds on her body... It appears that she was murdered and dumped in the area where animals attacked the body,” said the first investigating officer.

Senior police officers said the girl could not initially be identified. Investigation teams were subsequently tasked with establishing her identity and tracing her family.

Based on the family’s statement and post-mortem findings, police registered a case of murder, rape and causing disappearance of evidence.

Investigators said the girl had suffered multiple stab wounds.

How police zeroed in on the accused

A team led by additional deputy commissioner of police (outer north) Lokeshwaran R and ACP Ravinder Ahlawat began investigating the circumstances surrounding the dumping of the body. Police said none of the local residents had reported seeing the girl on Saturday night or Sunday.

More than 50 CCTV cameras in the area were scanned as investigators tried to establish the movements around the field. During the exercise, they spotted a tempo moving near the location around the suspected time of the crime. The vehicle’s registration was not clearly visible, but local enquiries eventually helped investigators identify the tempo.

Police picked up the driver for questioning, and he told them that his 17-year-old younger brother frequently used the vehicle.

“The footage also revealed the presence of four young boys inside the tempo. The boys were soon identified but had fled from their homes,” an investigator said.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer north) Shobhit Saksena said investigators analysed the tempo’s movement across multiple CCTV cameras and combined the footage with local enquiries to establish the route taken by the accused.

“On the basis of the developed leads, a night-long search operation was conducted during the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday. The tempo was traced in Khadda Colony, Swaroop Nagar. Its driver was identified and questioned. Further investigation led to the apprehension of four persons,” Saksena said.

The police said that the accused were identified as 19-year-old Shivam Ganesh and three minors aged 17 and 16. Investigators recovered two knives allegedly used in the crime and the clothes the accused were wearing. Two police officers confirmed to HT that at least three of the accused confessed to raping the victim.

The sequence of the alleged crime

A second investigator said: “From what we have learned so far, the minor had gone to meet the 17-year-old on Friday night. He was the first to rape her, after which she threatened to report the crime to the authorities. He then called his friends, who overpowered her and raped her. They were all under the influence of alcohol.”

“After the rape, they took her to a field and stabbed her more than six times. They tried to hide the body under leaves and mud. They later fled in the tempo. We are investigating whether the rape took place inside the vehicle or in the field,” the officer added.

Police said the girl was a school dropout who had moved to Swaroop Nagar a few years ago. She was looking for a job to support her parents and was living separately from them.

No missing-person complaint had been filed because her parents were unaware that she had gone out and had been missing for two days, police said.

Investigators eventually identified her with the help of local residents who had previously seen her in the area.

“Further investigation is in progress to establish the complete sequence of events, ascertain the individual role of each apprehended person, verify all available forensic and technical evidence, and examine the involvement of any other person in the offence. The recovered exhibits have been preserved for forensic examination, and necessary legal action will be taken accordingly,” Saksena said.