New Delhi: It was a weekday like any other. The couple, an Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer and his wife, awakened their 22-year-old daughter and left for the gym. She went up to the room on the rooftop where she had been preparing for the approaching UPSC Prelims.
Not long after, Rahul Meena—who she recognised as their former house help—approached her and asked for money. When she refused, Rahul allegedly hit her on the head with a blunt object, raped her while she was unconscious and then strangulated her with a charging cable.
Delhi Police arrested Meena the same day from a hotel in Dwarka. On Thursday, he was produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class Deepika Thakran of Saket Courts who remanded him to four days’ police custody.
Meena admitted to the court that he committed a crime and that he needed the deceased’s fingerprints to open the family safe. However, the court stated that his admission would not be treated as a formal confession.
Back at the IRS officer’s house in South Delhi, relatives, neighbours and family friends gathered Thursday to mourn the family’s loss. The woman’s parents sat in a corner, distraught and unable to speak.
“We regret we hired a young boy, and trusted our family in the hands of a criminal,” a family member said.
Rahul, 19, had been hired by the family on the basis of reference, without verification, the police said. The IRS officer had got in touch with him through GST officials in Alwar, who told him that he used to work at their office.
According to the victim’s aunt, when Rahul had been just hired, he did not misbehave or create any ruckus, and used to do his work quietly.
“But then we started getting complaints that he was borrowing money from people. That’s when we fired him,” she said. “If only we had got verification done, we might have got some information on him. The family would have been alerted, but we had no clue.”
She added that the family could never have imagined that Rahul could commit such a crime. “We did not know he was such a madman. Once we were told about his behaviour, we removed him. We could not imagine his anger could kill our child.”
Also Read: IRS officer’s daughter murdered: Arrested house help was booked in Alwar rape case a day earlier
What postmortem report says
Citing the report, sources in the forensic department at AIIMS in New Delhi said that according to external examination, there were “multiple abrasions, abraded contusions over both arms, hands and legs”.
“Multiple lacerations with abrasion along with nasal bone fracture were present over face,” a source added.
“Postmortem has shown that she died of strangulation following assault, while her samples, like vaginal and anal swabs and nail scrapings, have been preserved and send for tests to confirm rape,” the source further said.
The magistrate had asked Meena about the injuries mentioned in the medico-legal report (MLC), to which he had said that he had got hurt while coming down from the terrace.
‘Father’s daughter’
The woman, the family said, wanted to serve in the UPSC just like her father. She was supposed to sit for the prelims exam on 24 May, and had been preparing every day for hours in the room on the rooftop.
Police sources said Thursday that the accused entered the room while she was studying. “He overpowered her and hit her with a hard object, following which she fell down, and was not conscious. He then sexually assaulted her,” a source told ThePrint, adding that he then dragged her body to the fourth floor, where the family lived, and fled with the money.
A grieving neighbour, who has known the family for years, said, “She was a brilliant daughter… the kind of daughter one prays for. She studied engineering. For the past year, she had been preparing for UPSC… The entire family was helping her study and building her confidence.”
The woman also loved dancing since she was five, the family said, and was an active participant in dance competitions, neighbourhood events, college fests, and so on.
“She was passionate about dance. It was her father who had got her trained in dance. She was truly her father’s daughter,” said her dance trainer and family friend.