A nine-year-old girl died under suspicious circumstances. Her parents alleged that she was cremated without their consent by a crematorium’s priest in south-west Delhi’s Old Nangal Village. Police said that a Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) team and a crime team are  investigating the case in order to collect the evidence.

Police said that the girl lived with her parents in the village in a rented house in front of a crematorium.

According to Ingit Pratap Singh, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South-west district, on Sunday around 5.30 PM, she went to get cold water from a water cooler at the crematorium after informing her mother.

“At 6 PM, the crematorium’s priest, Radhey Shyam, and two-three other people, known to the girl’s mother, called her there and showed her her daughter’s lifeless body lying in the crematorium.  They claimed that she got electrocuted while getting water from the cooler.

There were burn marks between her left wrist and elbow and her lips were also blue,” said the DCP.

“The priest and the others dissuaded her mother from making a police control room (PCR) call, saying that the police would make a case out of it and during post-mortem, the doctors would steal the girl’s organs, so it was better to cremate her,” said the DCP.

“The girl was cremated but later the woman and her husband changed their minds and raised a hue and cry that the cremation of their child was done without their consent. A crowd of 200 villagers gathered there and a PCR call was made from the spot,” said the DCP.

“The PCR call was received at Delhi Cantt police station around 10.30 PM following which police rushed to the spot. The police team brought the situation under control.

The woman gave her statement and a case was registered under relevant sections of the IPC. The priest was taken into custody and an FSL team and a crime team were called to collect evidence from the scene,” said the DCP.