Place where minor was raped on August 26, saw similar crime year ago

Delhi crime: As the nation continues to grapple with the shock of the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, another horrific incident has emerged. A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped by the caretaker of a local graveyard in the heart of Rohini, West Delhi, on August 26.

The girl was lured with the promise of an occult ritual that would cure her father’s lung cancer. Her father, a fruit seller in Rohini’s Savda Ghera JJ Cluster, has been battling the illness for nearly two years.

The perpetrator, identified as Sharif, asked the girl to meet him at the graveyard to perform the ritual. Once there, he began by circling a few cloves around her. The 52-year-old caretaker then instructed her to light incense sticks at a nearby grave.

“The man then took the girl to the back of the graveyard and raped her,” said an officer involved in the case.

After the assault, he handed her Rs 51 and threatened her to stay silent if she wanted her father to recover. Though she initially stayed silent, she began bleeding from her genitalia, and the pain eventually became unbearable, forcing her to confide in her sister.

The police were notified on August 27, and Sharif was arrested the same day. The rape of the minor has reignited memories of another gruesome incident that took place around the same time last year.

Also read: Delhi crime: Fingerprint bureau on a crime-solving spree

A year ago: Another case of brutality

In July, a 20-year-old girl was raped inside her apartment complex in Rohini. After being dropped off by a friend at the society where she lived, she was on her way to her residential building when Solanki, who identified himself as a Delhi Police officer using a fake ‘identity card,’ allegedly approached her in the staircase.

He claimed to have videos of the victim and her partner being intimate and threatened to leak these ‘private’ videos to her parents and on social media. “He asked the girl to follow him up the stairs to the roof, where he attacked and raped her,” said an officer closely associated with the case.

After the assault, she managed to inform her friends. A team from the Delhi Crime Branch quickly sprang into action, and Solanki was arrested within 24 hours.

According to the police, the ID card Solanki flashed was actually an expired gun licence, which had a monogram of Delhi Police printed on it. “It was an expired gun licence, which people mistook for a police identity card. Not many are aware of the difference between a police identity card and a gun licence, and under intimidation, they are willing to believe anything,” said a police officer.

The officer added that the accused had exploited people’s general fear of police personnel. “This was not the first time he had attempted something like this. Previously, he had committed minor crimes using a similar tactic with his fake ID. It was not only a fake ID but not even one from the Delhi Police,” the officer said.

The police reviewed over 250 CCTV recordings from the Rohini area to locate the suspect, eventually identifying Solanki. The footage showed Solanki entering the gated society around 9 pm and exiting approximately 30 minutes later.

After committing the crime, Solanki fled on a motorcycle toward Rithala Metro Station but initially managed to evade capture. Authorities examined more than 40 individuals matching the suspect’s description and inspected over 1,000 motorcycles in the vicinity of Rithala Metro Station, as seen in the footage.

Acting on a tip-off, police set up a trap and apprehended Solanki near a mall in Sector-24, Rohini. During interrogation, it was revealed that Solanki had stalked the survivor and her partner for over an hour, taking their photos while they were inside their car. He waited until she was alone to threaten her, exploiting the fact that many women do not share details of their personal lives with their parents, according to the police.

Also read: Neglected Delhi libraries in resettlement colonies struggle amid crime, decay, and apathy

The woman has since returned to her native state, while Solanki awaits the commencement of his trial. The Patriot attempted to reach the survivor’s family for comment, but they were unwilling to respond.

However, neighbours in the survivor’s area described the incident as unusual and reported that nothing of this sort had ever happened before. “I had seen her around the locality, but she mostly kept to herself and did not bother the neighbours,” said Triveni Sharma, a resident of the gated society.

“However, after the incident, the atmosphere in the society changed. Women stopped going out alone, and whenever a female working member was dropped off in front of the society’s gates, someone from the family was always there to accompany them to their building,” she added.

Solanki, a resident of Pooth Kalan on the outskirts of Rohini, was married and had two children. His wife remains there, but any form of relationship with the accused has been severed.

The survivor, reflecting on the past year, said, “Even with over a year having passed since the incident, it still feels like a bad dream. I sometimes have difficulty believing it, but the police caught him red handed, and there was proof. He is no one to any of us.”

She now resides with her parents near Pooth Kalan, keeping her children shielded from their father’s actions.