Shahbad Dairy Killing: Girl’s Murder Planned For 3 Days, Say Delhi Police

The brutal killing of a 16-year-old girl in north-west Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy on Sunday was planned over three days, and triggered by a verbal spat between the accused, Sahil, and the deceased last Thursday, according to police officers involved in the probe.

This contention indicates this was not a “crime of passion”, as earlier suspected, but a premeditated murder, the officers added.

According to police, on Sunday afternoon, the 20-year-old, who had been stalking the girl, waited in the lane where one of the girl’s friends lived. He eventually approached her as she emerged from a public toilet, stabbed her multiple times with a knife, and pounded her body with a stone slab even as passerby did not intervene.

The knife used in the killing was bought by Sahil in Haridwar, officers said, but it was not immediately clear when or why he had purchased it.

“Sahil told police that since their confrontation on Thursday, where the girl allegedly insulted him, he held a grudge against her,” said Dependra Pathak, special commissioner of police (law and order). “This was a premeditated murder, and we are building a watertight case to ensure he is given the harshest punishment,” Pathak added. Investigators will soon reconstruct the crime scene, the officer said.

Sahil has told the police that after the murder, he went to Rithala Metro station, where he dumped the knife, boarded a Metro to Anand Vihar, and then travelled to his aunt’s home in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr. He was eventually arrested from there on Monday. On Tuesday, a Delhi court sent him to two days in police remand.

Police are yet to recover the knife used in the murder, although they have seized Sahil’s phone, and the bloodstained clothes he allegedly wore at the time of the crime. Police have also accessed chats between Sahil and the girl to establish if they communicated in the days leading to the murder.

The two were allegedly in a relationship for the last two years till earlier this month, according to police, and had recently stopped seeing each other. The parents of the deceased, however, have denied having any information of the two being in a relationship.

A second investigator aware of the case said that the girl and Sahil first met in Shahbad Dairy about two years ago. They became friends, and would often meet at the homes of the two of the girl’s friends in the same neighbourhood, said the second officer, who asked not to be named. A fortnight ago, the girl broke up with Sahil, and resumed her friendship with another man from the same neighbourhood, the officer added.

“Sahil couldn’t accept that the girl had broken up with him. On Thursday, he met her and was adamant that she resume their relationship. When the girl refused, Sahil began abusing her in front of three of her friends,” Pathak said.

Her friends allegedly threatened to beat Sahil, while the girl allegedly insulted him. “Over the next three days, Sahil planned to kill the girl,” said Pathak.

Filling in more details, Ravi Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (outer north), said that on Sunday night, the girl was going for a birthday party at her friend’s home, and went to a nearby public toilet to get ready. “There was no toilet at the place where the girl was staying so she went to the public toilet to change,” Singh added.

At 8.30pm, Sahil went near the victim’s friend’s house in the hope of waylaying her. While he waited, one of his friends saw him and asked him why he was loitering around, said a third investigator, citing CCTV footage from the spot.

Minutes later, as the girl emerged from the public toilet and walked towards her friend’s house, Sahil attacked her, police said.

The first time the police was alerted was by a local resident about 10-15 minutes after Sahil had fled the spot. “The beat constable had already reached the sport, and he informed the area SHO and ACP about the incident,” said fourth police officer, asking not to be named.

“During questioning, Sahil told the police that after the murder he first went to a public park, waited there for a few minutes and then headed to Rithala Metro station, about 6-7km from the murder spot, in an e-rickshaw. He disposed of the knife somewhere near the station, but hasn’t been able to point out the exact location,” the officer added.

Police established the identity of the suspect from the CCTV footage of the murder, and detained Sahil’s father Mohammad Sarfaraz, on Monday. Police have also questioned the girl’s three friends about the events preceding the murder, and about the relationship between Sahil and the victim. Another friend of the deceased, who lives in Jaunpur, UP, has been asked to join investigation, officers said.