'Go home, don't shout or cry,' rapist priest told victim's mom

New Delhi : Three days after a young Dalit girl's alleged rape and murder in Delhi and her cremation without her family's consent, the police have yet to establish the cause of her death.

The crime has generated shock and has also spurred a political controversy in the middle of a tense parliament session.

On Sunday, the nine-year-old, from a poor family, went to a crematorium near her home to fetch drinking water from a cooler but she never returned. Around 6 pm, locals who knew the cremation ground priest, Radheshyam, called her mother to the crematorium and showed her the body of her daughter. They claimed she had been electrocuted.

"Go home and sleep. Don't shout and cry about it," the girl's mother quotes the priest as saying while cremating her. The priest and three others have been arrested and face charges under stringent laws that include sections on child sex abuse and crimes against scheduled castes and tribes.

The child's family alleges she was raped and killed. A senior police officer said the postmortem was inconclusive. The four accused will now face lie detector and drug tests, he said.

Sharing the tragic manner in which she learnt about her daughter's death, the woman said some people came and simply told her the priest wanted to see her at the crematorium.

"When I went there he informed me that my daughter was dead. I asked how she died. I told them to dial '100' and call the police. He refused," said the mother.

"He pressured me to cremate the body immediately and dissuaded me from calling the cops. He said if you call the cops there will be a long court case, my daughter's body would be taken to the hospital where the police and doctors would take out her organs and sell them. He said he would perform the cremation himself as I couldn't afford it."

She says at around 7.30 pm, the priest and his staff had started her daughter's cremation. The family was forced to sit at a distance by the staff and asked to return the next morning for the child's ashes.

The woman rushed out crying and her family tried to put out the funeral pyre but it was too late.

"I was told to return at 8 am to collect the ashes. I rushed out crying and informed my relatives. My family came there and tried to put out the fire using buckets of water. They have not given any proof regarding my daughter," the mother wept.

In their extreme distress, the parents were taken to the police station. "We were beaten by the police. My husband and I were kept in separate rooms," said the girl's mother.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi government will order a magisterial inquiry into the death of a nine-year-old Dalit girl following an alleged sexual assault. The chief minister also announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family of the girl.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi met the family of the nine-year-old girl. Gandhi tweeted, calling the young girl who was murdered "the nation's daughter".

The BJP accused Rahul of using the case for "furthering" his political agenda, and asserted that the law and order machinery has moved swiftly to deliver justice to the victim's family.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took suo motu cognisance of matter . NCPCR wrote to DCP South West, asking him to furnish detailed report within 48 hours.

Amid Opposition ruckus in the Parliament's Monsoon Session, Trinamool Congress MP Derek OBrien stated that he will shave his head if Union Home Minister Amit Shah comes to Parliament on Wednesday and makes a statement on the Delhi rape case.