A Delhi court on Saturday formally took cognisance of the charge sheet against a former domestic worker accused of the sexual assault and murder of a senior IRS officer's 22-year-old daughter.
Judicial Magistrate Deepika Thakran accepted the investigative report during a hearing on the charges against the accused, Rahul Meena. As part of the proceedings, the court ordered law enforcement to preserve all video evidence related to the case and share those files with the defense counsel ahead of the next hearing on August 1.
The charge sheet was filed before the court on Thursday, after the completion of the investigation by the Amar Colony police station in southeast Delhi.
The matter was listed for hearing Saturday, the officials said.
The victim, an IIT graduate preparing for the civil services examination, was found dead by her parents at their Kailash Hills residence in East of Kailash on the morning of April 22 after they returned home from a gym.
According to police, Meena (23), who was dismissed from his job in February over alleged financial misconduct, entered the house early that morning by using his prior knowledge of a spare key kept on the premises.
Police said he raped the woman and strangled her with a mobile phone charging cable after she resisted his demand for money.
Police said Meena then stole cash amounting to between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh, changed into the victim's brother's clothes and fled the house.
Police said the charge sheet states that fingerprints, palm prints and thumb impressions lifted from the crime scene match those of the accused, while DNA profiling has conclusively matched his DNA with the biological evidence found during the probe.
"The investigation was supported by extensive scientific examinations carried out by experts from the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) and the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL).
"Exhibits collected from the crime scene and other locations were examined by the Physics, Chemistry and Biology divisions of the CFSL, and the forensic reports yielded positive results, corroborating the prosecution's case," a senior police officer said.
Police said the crime scene was thoroughly examined by expert teams from the CFSL.
"We recreated the crime scene at the instance of the accused in the presence of CFSL experts.
Sequential photography and videography documenting his alleged entry, movements inside the house and exit were conducted, while the reconstruction footage was also examined for gait-pattern analysis," the officer said.
The Behavioural Analysis Interview and Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) of the accused were also conducted by the CFSL experts during the course of the investigation.
Police said footage collected from more than 100 CCTV cameras was analysed to establish the route taken by the accused before and after the crime.
The footage allegedly showed Meena entering the residential complex around 6:30 am and leaving about 7:20 am.
He was arrested from a hotel in Dwarka later the same day.
According to police, the entire robbed property was recovered at the instance of the accused.
The investigators also carried out extensive field enquiries and questioned a large number of people, including neighbours, security guards, domestic workers, labourers, drivers, sweepers, auto-rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers and others present in the vicinity of the crime scene.
Describing the investigation as scientific and evidence-based, police said the combination of CCTV analysis, forensic examination, DNA profiling, fingerprint matching, behavioural assessment, scene reconstruction and recovery of the robbed property helped establish the complete chain of evidence against the accused.
(With inputs from PTI)