NEW DELHI: Day after a 16-year-old girl was shot at in south Delhi's Sangam Vihar, police, have arrested the main accused, who allegedly hatched a conspiracy to kill her because she had stopped talking to him, officials said on Thursday.
Amanat Ali (19) was arrested on Wednesday, they said.
Police had earlier arrested two other accused -- Bobby (24) and Pawan alias Sumit (19) -- in the case.
According to police, Ali had concealed his religious identity when he came in contact with the girl on social media a couple of years ago.
She stopped talking to him around six months ago and he held a grudge against her for this.
Ali allegedly decided to kill her and contacted Bobby and Pawan.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has told the Assembly that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will provide the best possible treatment to the girl, who received a bullet injury on her shoulder in the attack on August 25.
Kejriwal has also demanded the strictest punishment for the accused.
Soon after receiving information about the incident, police personnel from the Tigri station had rushed the victim to a private hospital and her statement was recorded.
Subsequently, a forensic science team had recovered an empty cartridge from the crime spot.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Benita Mary Jaiker said based on the victim's statement, a case was registered under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the relevant provisions of the Arms Act.
"During the course of the investigation, we collected CCTV footage from the area and thoroughly analysed it. The girl identified Ali," the DCP said.
She said the CCTV footage showed the three men chasing the girl when she was on her way home from school and opening fire at her.
Police said the three accused were traced to Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh through technical surveillance but they managed to give the police team a slip.
Acting on a tip-off that two of the accused would come to Delhi the next day, police nabbed Bobby from K Block, Sangam Vihar.
Based on the information provided by him, Pawan was also arrested from Sangam Vihar, the DCP said.
Ali was arrested from Trilokpuri, she added.
According to the victim's father, the accused had befriended the girl on social media.
When she found out that he lived only a few streets away from her house and had sent her a friend request under a fake name, she blocked him and did not speak to him afterwards.
"He started loitering around the street near our house. I had given an informal complaint to the beat policeman after he broke our window with a stone. The policeman had assured me that he would handle it. I do not know what happened after that. If something was done, he probably would not have had the courage to shoot my daughter," the father of the girl said.
Recalling the incident, he said, "When I saw my daughter at the hospital, the first thing she asked me was not to let him get away with it. You cannot imagine my pain when I saw her like that."
Meanwhile, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has issued a notice to the city police, seeking an action-taken report in the matter.
A Class-3 student of a school in east Delhi's Madhu Vihar was allegedly sexually assaulted by one of his seniors in the toilet of the school, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place on August 29 but was reported the next day, they added.
According to police, during an enquiry, it was found that the eight-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by a 14-year-old Class-10 student in the toilet during school hours.
A case under the relevant provisions of law has been registered and the juvenile apprehended and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, a senior police officer said.