Delhi Police have arrested a 29-year-old cab driver for abducting an 11-year-old girl from Mehrauli, raping and murdering her, and dumping her body. The arrest happened within hours of the crime being reported.
The accused, identified as Bashu Kumar Singh, was arrested on Monday while dropping off a passenger. He has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for rape, murder and kidnapping, as well as under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The incident occurred around 5 a.m. on Monday when the girl was sleeping with her family on the pavement at CDR Chowk in Mehrauli. Police used CCTV footage and local intelligence to track the cab with a Haryana registration number and arrested Singh less than six hours after the report.
On Tuesday, Singh was produced before a city court and remanded to two days of police custody. While being taken to the crime scenes, he tried to escape, snatched a policeman’s pistol and fired at the team. Police returned fire in self-defence, wounding him in the leg. He was taken to Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital for treatment.
Singh has five prior criminal cases registered against him in Bihar, including four for sexual assault and one for attempted murder. The girl’s body was recovered from a forest along the Gurugram-Faridabad road and sent for post-mortem examination at Safdarjung Hospital.
