Supreme Court blasts Ghaziabad police over 'insensitive' probe in 4-year-old's rape-murder case

New Delhi: Expressing its shock at the harrowing rape-murder case of a four-year-old girl in Ghaziabad, the Supreme Court on Friday summoned the police commissioner and the investigating officer on April 13 with the case records.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said that the most shocking part of the offence is the local police's indifferent, inhumane, and insensitive approach.

Senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for the victim's father, a daily wager, claimed that the FIR does not reflect true facts.

He claimed there was a video by villagers showing the four-year-old child was alive, and a man picked up the child and rushed her to the hospital, but the police are refusing to accept it. The bench expressed its displeasure over the manner in which the Uttar Pradesh Police had conducted the investigation so far in the case.

The court castigated the Uttar Pradesh police and two private hospitals, which refused to treat the girl before she succumbed to her injuries post-alleged rape, for their "complete indifference" and "insensitive approach".

The victim was allegedly lured away by a neighbour on March 16, on the pretext of buying chocolates. When the child did not return, the father led a search for his daughter. He found her lying unconscious and covered in blood. The child succumbed to her injuries at a government hospital in Ghaziabad.