Cabbie picked another ride after raping, killing minor; showed no remorse for crime: Delhi Police

DELHI: After allegedly kidnapping an 11-year-old girl from south Delhi, raping and murdering her before hiding her body under stones in Gurugram, a cab driver allegedly resumed his routine, picked up another passenger and behaved normally until his arrest hours later. Police said he remained largely unemotional, showed no remorse and repeatedly changed his account of the crime during interrogation.

The girl was sleeping with her parents, daily-wage labourers, at a pavement near Chattarpur Metro station early Monday. At around 4.15 am, Bashu Kumar Singh (29), a cab driver, allegedly parked his white hatchback near them and kidnapped the unsuspecting girl.

A PCR call was made to Mehrauli police station at 4.58 am.

Singh was arrested around 11 am in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri, where he had halted briefly after dropping a passenger.

“He had picked up and dropped a passenger shortly before he was arrested. He appeared to be behaving normally, showing no indication of what he had done,” a police source said.

According to investigators, Singh, a native of Bihar who is married and has children there, had allegedly consumed marijuana before the crime.

Police said he had parked his car near the pavement for some time before allegedly kidnapping the girl.

During sustained interrogation, Singh gave multiple versions of how the crime unfolded and kept changing his statements, officers said.

In one account, he told police that he sexually assaulted the child inside his car on Mandi Road near Fatehpur Beri, close to the Gurugram border.

In another version, he claimed he drove her to a secluded forested stretch along the Faridabad-Gurugram road where he raped her, strangled her using a piece of cloth and then struck her on the chest with a stone.

Police said Singh eventually led them to the crime scene around 5 pm, where he had allegedly attempted to conceal the body by placing stones around and over it.

“He had hidden the body under stones in an apparent bid to delay its discovery and destroy evidence,” the source said.

The body was recovered from the spot and sent for post-mortem.

Investigators said Singh also claimed during questioning that after assaulting the girl, he had initially intended to return her to the place from where he had kidnapped her but fled after spotting police personnel in the area. This claim is being verified.

Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams collected samples from the car used in the crime as well as from the spot where the body was found.

Police said Singh remained largely unemotional during questioning and repeatedly altered the sequence of events.

A case under Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, along with charges of rape, kidnapping and murder under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, has been registered.

Police said no evidence of involvement of any other person has surfaced so far.

They added that a chargesheet would be filed at the earliest to ensure maximum punishment for the accused.