Delhi crime: As the nation remains gripped by anger over the rising tide of rape and sexual assault cases, fresh incidents have continued to emerge unabated.
Since the horrific rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, a wave of sexual assault cases has dominated the news cycle.
The latest incident to send shockwaves across the country involves the kidnapping and rape of a six-year-old boy in the national capital’s Govindpuri area.
A night of horror
On the evening of July 31, the boy was playing with his friends in the parking lot of a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) complex in Kalkaji, as usual, when the accused, his 35-year-old neighbour, Balram Das, approached him.
Das allegedly lured the boy with toffees and candies laced with drugs, persuading him to follow him to a nearby location. He lost consciousness soon after consuming the sweets, according to the survivor’s statement to the Child Welfare Committee.
He further told the committee that he remembered being taken through a jungle, which was later found to be the shrubs and overgrowth around a bathroom.
Das, a resident of Kalkaji’s in-situ resettlement colony, took the boy to an abandoned public toilet near a market in Govindpuri, where the child was held captive for over 12 hours.
The boy’s mother filed a missing person’s report on September 1, and by 12:30 pm the police, along with a search party of local residents, managed to trace the child to the toilet complex.
According to the police, the six-year-old was found naked with multiple injuries, including marks on his body and private parts. The search party was unable to locate the child’s clothes.
The boy was immediately sent to AIIMS for medical examination and later transferred to the Boy’s Home in Lajpat Nagar. At that point, no claims of sexual assault had been made.
A case of kidnapping was initially filed under Section 137 (Kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The boy’s terror and trauma made it difficult for him to recount the sexual assault immediately. However, on 3 September, the survivor’s mother called the police, alleging that her son had been raped by the accused, Das.
As a result, the First Information Report (FIR) was updated to include provisions under Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
A familiar face
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“He used to play with the children in the parking downstairs and would frequently arrive with chocolates, toffees, and other sweets for the children to keep them happy,” said Punita, Das’ neighbour on the 11th floor.
Another resident, Sanjay, revealed more about Das, a migrant from West Bengal, who was childless and blamed his wife for it.
“Recently, he had offered a sum of Rs 2 lakh to the mother of the survivor, trying to buy her youngest child to keep with him. She refused, and that may have led to him assaulting her six-year-old.”
According to residents at Kalkaji’s Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flat, the resident of A-Block was no stranger to such violence.
“He didn’t have any children, and that irked Kalu (Das’ alias) a lot. He would get drunk every day, and we could hear screams coming from his apartment,” Sanjay said. “His wife would always emerge with fresh bruises every other day, unless he found someone else to take his rage out on,” Sanjay further added.
Another neighbour accused Das of murdering her husband. “He forced spurious liquor down my husband’s throat to make him unconscious, then beat him senseless until he stopped breathing,” the woman alleged.
Lax police response
Both the boy’s mother and residents of the area have accused the police of handling the case with negligence.
“We urged them to investigate the possibility of sexual assault as early as September 2, but no action was taken by the investigating officer,” said the boy’s mother.
“Even when we went to file the missing person’s report on September 1, the police were reluctant to speak to us,” said Preeti, a local resident.
On September 3, the police escorted the accused out of the DDA flat, shielding him from an enraged crowd of residents who had vowed to attack him.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Rajesh Deo stated, “The local police managed to bring the accused to the police station safely, despite the large crowd and their efforts to assault both police staff and the accused.”
However, residents claim that in protecting Das, the police assaulted several of them, leading to hospitalisations.
“My sister is now admitted to Safdarjung Hospital because she sought justice. A male police officer kicked her, and she was pregnant at the time,” said Preeti.
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“There were no female police officers present, even though most of the protestors were women,” another neighbour Nirmala said.
In response to the incident, residents blocked the road outside Govindpuri Police Station.
“We created a traffic jam for 10 minutes at Sri Lal Chowk, but a large police force, including paramilitary personnel, was deployed to disperse us. No female officers were present, and they used excessive force against us,” claimed a resident protester.
Police later confirmed that forces from Okhla, Kalkaji, and Amar Colony were also deployed at the scene.
Further investigations are ongoing.
