Kejriwal announces magisterial probe into death of Dalit girl, Rs 10 lakh for family

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the Delhi government will order a magisterial inquiry into the death of a nine-year-old Dalit girl following an alleged sexual assault.

The chief minister also announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the girl.

“Our girl cannot come back. The injustice done to the family is unfortunate and cannot be compensated, but the government will give Rs 10 lakh to them and order a magisterial inquiry into the matter,” he told reporters after meeting the family.

“There is a need to strengthen law and order in Delhi. I appeal to the central government to take firm steps in this direction,” he said.

In a tweet, the chief minister said that the government will appoint top lawyers to ensure the guilty is punished.

The parents of the girl accompanied by hundreds of locals were staging a protest near the site of the incident in Old Nangal area in southwest Delhi, demanding capital punishment for the accused.

The girl lived with her parents in a rented house in front of a crematorium. On Sunday at around 5.30 PM, she went to get cold water from a cooler at the crematorium after informing her mother, her parents said.

Around 6 PM, the crematorium's priest, Radhey Shyam, and two-three other people, known to the girl's mother, called her there and showed her daughter's body claiming that she got electrocuted while getting water from the cooler.

There were burn marks between her left wrist and elbow, and her lips were also blue, according to police.

It was alleged the priest and the others dissuaded her mother 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.

Police had on Monday said that based on the statement of the victim's mother, rape charges have been added in the FIR. Four people, including the priest, have been arrested.