New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) He spent hours circling the area, cancelled two rides and returned to the footpath in Mehrauli to abduct a 10-year-old girl who was sleeping with her family. But in his haste to conceal her body after allegedly sexually assaulting and killing her, the cab driver left behind a crucial piece of evidence — his own driving licence, the over 1,500-page chargesheet has revealed.
The driving licence, found near the spot where the accused allegedly dumped the girl’s body and attempted to conceal it under three large rocks, is among the physical evidence cited by the Delhi Police to corroborate the sequence of events in the June 22 case.
The accused, Bashu Kumar Singh (29), allegedly reached the area in Mehrauli nearly an hour before abducting the girl and initially drove past the footpath where she was sleeping with her parents and three younger siblings, according to the chargesheet.
The Delhi Police is likely to file the chargesheet in court in a week.
A senior police officer said it was the second chargesheet after the April 22 Amar Colony rape-murder case involving the daughter of a senior IRS officer in which the force has used a detailed pictorial description with timestamps to establish the sequence of events.
The chargesheet has 89 pages of operative parts and includes CCTV photographs showing Singh’s car before he allegedly abducted the girl, the child sleeping with her family on the footpath, reconstruction of the route taken by the accused and the crime scene where the body was recovered from a forested area.
The photographs carry exact timestamps, helping investigators establish the sequence of events and trace Singh’s movements before and after the crime, the officer said.
The route reconstruction was matched with CCTV footage and Singh’s statement to investigators to verify whether his version of events was consistent with the evidence, the officer said.
Photographs captured by Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras of his hatchback have also been incorporated into the chargesheet.
According to the chargesheet, Singh had dropped a passenger at Sangam Vihar after travelling from Gurugram and subsequently cancelled two rides over around two-and-a-half hours.
During this period, he allegedly continued roaming around the area from where he later picked up the girl instead of accepting other rides.
Investigators have established that Singh had reached the location nearly an hour before the abduction and had initially driven past the footpath where the girl was sleeping with her parents and three younger siblings.
Police said Singh allegedly returned after waiting for an opportunity and abducted the child at around 4.15 am. The girl screamed for help after being taken towards the car, alerting her father, who briefly chased the vehicle but could not catch it.
The chargesheet states that the girl was allegedly sexually assaulted inside the vehicle near Mandi village before Singh drove towards the Gurugram-Faridabad Road, where he allegedly killed her and concealed her body in a forested area.
The cause of death was found to be strangulation and smothering, according to the chargesheet. Singh allegedly used a gamcha (scarf) to strangle the child, which was later recovered from the crime scene.
The document also states that he struck the girl’s face with a rock, resulting in her teeth being broken.
Photographs of the crime scene show the body concealed beneath three large rocks, with Singh’s driving licence lying nearby. Investigators believe he accidentally dropped the licence while attempting to conceal the body.
Police have said Singh was arrested within six hours of the crime and the girl’s body was recovered around 11 to 12 hours after the incident after he led investigators to the location.
The chargesheet, according to the officer, brings together electronic, physical, witness and biological evidence, with the different strands corroborating one another.
“This is a highly advanced and scientific chargesheet incorporating all the evidence to ensure that there is no scope left but to ensure justice to the victim,” the senior officer said.
The police have also invoked Section 140(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, dealing with kidnapping or abduction with intent to murder, cause grievous hurt or hold a person for ransom.
A supplementary chargesheet will be filed later, police said.
The chargesheet also incorporates forensic evidence collected from the accused’s car and locations linked to the crime. Investigators had earlier found that Singh allegedly attempted to clean the vehicle after the incident, but forensic teams recovered hair and other samples from it.
Police have also reconstructed the accused’s movements using CCTV footage, vehicle-number recognition systems and other electronic evidence.
In the Amar Colony case, Delhi Police had filed a 973-page chargesheet against Rahul Meena, the former domestic help accused of raping and murdering the 22-year-old daughter of a senior IRS officer.
That chargesheet also used detailed evidence, including CCTV footage, fingerprints, palm and thumb impressions and DNA samples, along with 82 witnesses, to establish the sequence of events.
The senior officer said the use of timestamped pictorial reconstruction in the present case was aimed at presenting the sequence of events and corroborating the evidence collected during the investigation. PTI SSJ NB NB
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