A priest and three men have been charged with the gang rape and murder of a nine-year-old low-caste girl, police said, a case that sparked days of protests in New Delhi.
The four men, in detention since their arrest in early August, face the death penalty.
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On August 1, she was allegedly assaulted by a 53-year-old priest and three workers at the crematorium, located near the family's home in southwest Delhi, to fetch water. They then allegedly called her mother and told her that the young girl had electrocuted herself before telling her that if she reported the incident to the police, the doctors carrying out the autopsy would remove her organs and sell them. Her daughter's body was then cremated, but residents intervened to remove the charred remains from the pyre.
The indictment of the New Delhi police, which has 400 pages, refers to "scientific, technical and other evidence" and testimony, the government said in a statement on Saturday evening.
He stressed that he had lobbied for the alleged perpetrators to be charged within 30 days of this crime, which testifies to his “zero tolerance” for crimes committed against women and girls in this country of 1, 3 billion inhabitants.
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An average of nearly 90 rapes of girls and women were reported in India every day in 2019, according to official data. But a large number of sexual assaults go unreported. The Dalit community, which numbers 200 million people belonging to the lowest caste, has long been the victim of discrimination and violence in India, with attacks on the rise since the start of the pandemic.
