Slippers and Broken Wall: How Delhi Police Cracked Girl's Assault Case
In a remarkable display of investigative work, Delhi Police cracked the case of a 10-year-old girl's sexual assault in central Delhi's Prasad Nagar using seemingly insignificant clues—a pair of abandoned slippers and a gap in a broken stone wall leading into a forested ridge. The breakthrough came after intensive efforts spanning multiple locations and extensive CCTV analysis.
The Horrific Incident and Initial Investigation
The incident occurred on January 11 when the young girl, who supports her family by selling flowers at traffic signals, was allegedly abducted, raped, and left unconscious in a secluded area by an e-rickshaw driver. She was brought to a hospital with injuries, where she told police she had been lured by the driver on the pretext of being offered tea and taken to a forest patch.
Despite being disoriented, the survivor recalled fragments of her surroundings that would prove crucial to the investigation. She mentioned a "blue-painted room" and a "broken entry point"—details that provided police with their first substantial leads in the absence of a suspect name or vehicle registration number.
Massive Ground Operation and CCTV Analysis
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Anant Mittal immediately formed three specialized teams to crack the case. The investigation began with officers scanning a 20-square-kilometer radius, manually inspecting 22 locations with similar features to those described by the survivor.
The teams faced significant challenges as they had to rely entirely on visual identification of a red e-rickshaw with a white roof—the only description available of the suspect vehicle. Investigators analyzed footage from over 100 CCTV cameras across the area, with a key breakthrough emerging when a camera on Professor Ram Nath Vij Marg recorded a red e-rickshaw with a white roof carrying the minor.
Forensic Breakthrough and Crime Scene Confirmation
The investigation took a decisive turn when police examined the deserted stretch of the ridge mentioned in the CCTV footage. There, officers discovered exactly what the survivor had described—a broken stone wall leading to a small structure. The recovery of the girl's slippers at this location confirmed it as the crime scene.
Forensic teams were able to reconstruct the route taken by the accused between 11 pm and 1 am based on this physical evidence. The abandoned slippers and broken wall, which might have seemed insignificant to casual observers, became the critical pieces of evidence that tied the location to the crime.
Coordinated Search and Arrest Operation
While one team worked on the ground investigation, a second team continued scanning CCTV footage, and a third team began searching e-rickshaw stands in Karol Bagh and Rajendra Place based on the visual identification of the vehicle. Photographs of suspected drivers were circulated among investigators until the specific vehicle was traced near a petrol pump in Rajendra Place.
Police later spotted a man matching the victim's description approaching the identified e-rickshaw. When he noticed the police presence, he attempted to flee but was chased down and apprehended by officers on January 14.
Suspect Identification and Evidence Recovery
The arrested suspect was identified as Durgesh, a 25-year-old from Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh. Following his arrest, he led police to the recovery of blood-stained clothes, further strengthening the case against him. The survivor has since been discharged from medical care following treatment and counseling.
This case demonstrates how meticulous police work, combining ground investigation with technological tools like CCTV analysis, can solve crimes even with minimal initial information. The attention to seemingly minor details—like abandoned slippers and architectural features—proved decisive in bringing the perpetrator to justice.
