IRS officer’s daughter’s rape, murder
30 minutes of horror: He raped her in rooftop study, killed her and dragged body down stairs
New Delhi, April 23: ‘Mujhse apradh ho gaya…. Galti ho gayi,’ (I committed a crime, a mistake), said Rahul Meena, the 19-year-old domestic help accused of killing a senior IRS officer’s daughter at her upscale southeast Delhi residence, as a court sent him to four days of police custody on Thursday.
He raped a woman whose husband he knew in Alwar at night, went to Delhi the next morning, sneaked into a house he had worked in and headed straight to the rooftop study where he allegedly sexually assaulted and killed the daughter of his former employer.
That’s how the horror story proceeded, police said on Thursday following initial investigations into the rape and murder of the 22-year-old daughter of an Indian Revenue Service officer in south Delhi’s upscale Kailash Hills.
Piecing together the chilling details of the Wednesday morning murder, police officials said Rahul Meena is a man without remorse, a 19-year-old who allegedly attacked two women back to back and brutally killed one of them.
Meena, who was arrested on Wednesday and produced before court on Thursday, is showing little signs of contrition and has changed his statement repeatedly, officials privy to his interrogation said.
The tone was different in court.
‘Mujhse apradh ho gaya… Galti ho gayi (I committed a crime, a mistake),’ the teen domestic help said before Judicial Magistrate Deepika Thakaran who allowed the Delhi Police’s plea seeking four days of custodial interrogation.
Meena had worked with the IRS officer’s family for eight months and had been sacked a month ago for financial wrongdoings.
According to police sources, he not just knew the layout of the apartment but also the morning routine of the young woman’s parents who had left early morning for the gym.
He entered the house using a spare key and went straight to the study where he knew he would find their daughter, an IIT graduate preparing for the civil services exams. He attacked her and then dragged her blood-soaked body down the stairs.
Meena allegedly strangled the victim with a mobile phone charging cable before hitting her with a heavy object, rendering her unconscious.
“The investigation suggests that the accused raped the victim while she was still unconscious. He then dragged her down the stairs to another room where a locker was kept, and attempted to open the biometric lock using her fingerprint, but it did not open,” a police official said.
He then broke the locker open using a screwdriver, stole cash and jewellery, changed his blood-stained clothes and slippers and fled the scene, about 30 minutes before the victim’s parents returned home.
According to police, the accused was inside the house for about 30 minutes. CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts show that Meena entered the colony around 6.30 am, sneaked into the house at 6.49 am and left at 7.20 am.
The killing, which exposes security gaps even in gated localities, came to light when the victim’s parents returned home and found her lying in a pool of blood, with her clothes torn and her belongings scattered all around.
Dr Sudhir Gupta, head of the Forensic Department at AIIMS-Delhi, said the victim was taken to the Fortis Escorts Hospital in Okhla where she was declared brought dead.
The attack was brutal.
The post-mortem report showed multiple abrasions and abraded contusions on both arms, hands and legs, besides a nasal-bone fracture.
Gupta said the external examination revealed multiple injuries consistent with resistance. A dissection of the neck showed extensive damage to the muscles. All internal organs were found congested, consistent with asphyxial death due to strangulation.
Meena’s interrogation showed that he has a “perverted mindset”, added a police official.
During his four days in Delhi Police custody, police will recreate the entire crime scene from his starting point in Alwar to Kailash Hills and then on to a hotel in Dwarka 25 km away where he was staying. He was also arrested from there. (PTI)
