Kejriwal announces magisterial probe into death of Dalit girl, Rs 10 lakh compensation for family
New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI): Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the Delhi government will order a magisterial inquiry into the death of a nine-year-old Dalit girl following an alleged sexual assault.
He also announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the girl.
"Our girl cannot come back. The injustice done to the family is unfortunate and cannot be compensated, but the government will give Rs 10 lakh to them and order a magisterial inquiry into the matter, he told reporters after meeting the family.
The parents of the girl accompanied by hundreds of locals have been staging a protest near the site of the incident in Old Nangal area in southwest Delhi, demanding capital punishment for the accused.
When Kejriwal reached the area to meet the parents, the protesters mobbed the chief minister and started raising slogans against him.
The chief minister said that the government will appoint top lawyers to ensure the guilty get the harshest punishment.
"There is a need to strengthen law and order in Delhi. I appeal to the central government to take firm steps in this direction, he said.
If the Centre needs our help, we will fully cooperate with them, but if such incidents happen in Delhi, it doesn't send a good message about the national capital across the world, Kejriwal added.
The girl lived with her parents in a rented house in front of a crematorium. On Sunday at around 5.30 PM, she went to get cold water from a cooler at the crematorium after informing her mother, her parents said.
Around 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.
It was alleged the priest and the others dissuaded her mother from making a PCR call, saying police will make a case out of it and during the post-mortem, doctors will steal the girl's organs, so it was better to cremate her.
Four people, including the priest, have been arrested in connection with the incident. The accused have been booked on charges of murder and rape.
The Delhi Commission for Women has instituted an inquiry into the matter.
Stating that the case is "very serious" and merits "urgent attention", the panel has summoned the Deputy Commissioner of Southwest district to be present before it on August 5 and produce the complete case file of the matter along with a copy of FIR.
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EC demands extra security as unrest grips Bangladesh afresh
Dhaka (PTI): The Election Commission (EC) has demanded extra security for its chief, other commissioners and officials as fresh unrest visibly gripped Bangladesh after gunmen shot an upcoming parliamentary polls candidate and frontline leader of last year's violent street movement dubbed 'July Uprising'.
"The EC has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) urging comprehensive security arrangements for the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Election Commissioners (ECs), senior officials of the Election Commission Secretariat," the state-run BSS news agency reported on late Saturday.
The EC simultaneously sought the extra security for its field-level offices ahead of the 13th national election, as two of them came under attack in southeastern Lakshmipur and southwestern Pirojpur by unidentified miscreants after the announcement of the schedule for the upcoming polls on Thursday.
The commission demanded an additional escort vehicle for the CEC, while one such police escort with a vehicle was currently in place for him. It asked for round-the-clock police escorts for the four commissioners and the senior secretary.
The letter said the enhanced security measures were "urgent and necessary," while EC officials said their 10 regional offices, 64 district election offices and 522 sub-district level offices would store important documents and election materials.
The EC on Thursday said the upcoming parliamentary election would be held on February 12 next year, while a day later, Sharif Osman Hadi was shot from a close range in the head, critically wounding him, as he initiated his election campaign from a constituency in the capital.
Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) simultaneously asked Muhammad Yunus' government to provide security for all candidates in the upcoming election after the attack on Hadi, who leads a radical right-wing cultural group called Inquiab Mancha.
"We demand that the real culprit be identified immediately and brought under the law, and we call upon this government to ensure the security of all candidates without delay," BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.
Hadi was also a frontline leader of last year's student-led violent uprising that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
His Inquilab Mancha was also at the forefront of a campaign to disband the Awami League, which the interim government complied with in May this year, disqualifying the party from contesting the polls.
The government on Saturday ordered a nationwide security clampdown called 'Operation Devil Hunt 2' amid escalated fears over the law and order situation and promised to issue firearms licenses for election candidates for their own security.
Home adviser (retd) Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said the government had taken steps to ensure special security for the "frontline fighters" of the July Uprising and promised to issue firearms licenses for the election candidates.
He emphasised that the second phase of the 'Devil Hunt' was aimed at helping ensure public safety and combat the growing threat of illegal arms.
The operation was initially launched in February this year following protests over an attack on the private house of a former minister of the ousted government in the northern suburb of the capital, when it targeted alleged "henchmen" and supporters of the now disbanded Awami League.
