A nine-year-old Dalit girl died under suspicious circumstances, with her parents alleging that she was cremated without their consent by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal village, police said on Monday.
Police said that four people, including the priest, have been arrested in connection with the incident.
They said that the girl lived with her parents in the village in a rented house in front of a crematorium. 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 daughter's body claiming 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, a senior police officer said.
The priest and the others dissuaded her mother from making a PCR call, saying that the police will make a case out of it and during post-mortem, doctors will steal the girl's organs, so it was better to cremate her, the officer said.
The girl was cremated but later the woman with her husband raised a hue and cry that it was done without their consent. A crowd of 200 villagers gathered there and a PCR call was made from the spot, the police said.
The PCR call was received at Delhi Cantt police station around 10.30 pm following which police rushed to the spot.
"The situation was brought under control. The woman gave her statement and a case was registered under relevant sections. The priest was taken into custody and an FSL team and a crime team were called to collect evidence from the scene," Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Ingit Pratap Singh said.
Four people were arrested in connection with the girl's death. The accused have been identified as Radhey Shyam (priest), Kuldeep, Laxmi Narain and Salim, the police said, adding that they have been sent to judicial custody.
The statement of the complainant is being recorded under section 164 of the CrPC. SC/ST Act and POCSO Act will be added in the FIR, the police said.
They said that the accused will be interrogated in connection with the incident.