From now on, everytime we all debate over whether minors involved in rape cases need to have a different set of laws, there are two gruesome cases to keep in mind, Nirbhaya’s rape and this one. This horrific case of sexual brutality involves a 17-year-old boy and his accomplice, who raped and killed a lone woman inside her house, and then had sex with her corpse in Northwest Delhi.
“Both accused live in the same neighbourhood and the minor boy knew that the woman was alone at home. The duo, allegedly sexually assaulted the woman even after she was dead and her body was dumped at a forested area in Bhalswa Dairy area,” said a senior police official.
The woman was pursuing a vocational course in fashion designing. Her brothers live abroad and her parents had gone to their native village in UP, leaving her alone for a few days, said the official.
The woman’s parents started calling her up in the morning and when she did not take the calls, they asked neighbours to check, said police.
Even when the neighbours could not trace her, they informed her relatives in Delhi, said a senior police official. Later, a missing complaint was registered, said police. It was in the evening that some locals found her semi-naked body and raised an alarm.
The police got the first clue when a neighbour claimed to have seen Abhimanyu, the adult accused, carrying the body of the woman to a mini truck.
When questioned, the duo initially tried to mislead police, saying they had seen the woman and her relative in an indelicate position in her room. But when he was confronted about his story, the 17-year-old broke down and confessed to the crime that he and his friend had committed. He told the police that the two of them had been on the terrace of their house having alcohol, when Abhimanyu spied a girl sleeping in a neighbouring house. He went home nearby and returned in his mini truck, with evil intent in his mind.
They gained access to the premises by scaling the wall of the adjacent terrace. They used chloroform to make the sleeping woman unconscious, while they raped her. The woman suddenly gained consciousness and resisted the assault, because of which one of the accused allegedly strangled her to death.
Once they realised that the woman was dead, they carried her out into the mini-truck, drove to a forested area around 2-km away and dumped the body there.The duo again sexually assaulted the body there and fled from the spot.
The 17-year old boy has been apprehended, but his accomplice, a 22-year-old man named Abhimanyu is currently absconding.
