NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court on Monday sent a priest and three others, arrested for alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl near Delhi Cantonment in south-west Delhi earlier this month, to three day police custody.
Additional Sessions Judge Ashutosh Kumar handed over the accused to police after it said their custodial interrogation was required as certain new information has come to its knowledge.
All the accused were produced before the court from their judicial custody through video conferencing.
The four accuse were identified as Radhey Shyam, the 55-year-old priest of the crematorium, and three employees Salim, Laxmi Narayan and Kuldeep who are all known to the girl's mother, said police.
In an application moved before the court, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police sought 5-day remand of the accused to confront them to the witnesses and the evidence.
According to the prosecution, the minor girl was raped, murdered and then cremated without her parents' consent.
The case was recently transferred to the crime branch.
Delhi Police registered a case against four accused on the basis of the statement of the minor's mother, who alleged that her daughter was raped, murdered and cremated without family's consent on August 1.
The accused persons have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, along with the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the SC/ST Act.