Delhi Police Files 973-Page Chargesheet In IRS Officer’s Daughter Rape-Murder Case

New Delhi, Jul 17 : The Delhi Police has filed a 973-page chargesheet in a city court against Rahul Meena, the former domestic help accused in the rape and killing of the 22-year-old daughter of a senior IRS officer, officials said on Friday. The chargesheet was filed before the court on Thursday, after the completion of the investigation by the Amar Colony police station in southeast Delhi. The matter is listed for hearing on July 18, the officials said. The victim, an IIT graduate preparing for the civil services examination, was found dead by her parents at their Kailash Hills residence in East of Kailash on the morning of April 22 after they returned home from a gym. According to police, Meena (23), who was dismissed from his job in February over alleged financial misconduct, entered the house early that morning by using his prior knowledge of a spare key kept on the premises. Police said he raped the woman and strangled her with a mobile phone charging cable after she resisted his demand for money. Police said the accused then stole cash amounting to between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh, changed into the victim’s brother’s clothes and fled the house. Police said the chargesheet states that fingerprints, palm prints and thumb impressions lifted from the crime scene match those of the accused, while DNA profiling has conclusively matched his DNA with the biological evidence found during the probe. “The investigation was supported by extensive scientific examinations carried out by experts from the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) and the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL). Exhibits collected from the crime scene and other locations were examined by the Physics, Chemistry and Biology divisions of the CFSL, and the forensic reports yielded positive results, corroborating the prosecution’s case,” a senior police officer said. Police said the crime scene was thoroughly examined by expert teams from the CFSL. “We recreated the crime scene at the instance of the accused in the presence of CFSL experts. Sequential photography and videography documenting his alleged entry, movements inside the house and exit were conducted, while the reconstruction footage was also examined for gait-pattern analysis,” the officer said. The Behavioural Analysis Interview and Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) of the accused were also conducted by the CFSL experts during the course of the investigation. Police said footage collected from more than 100 CCTV cameras was analysed to establish the route taken by the accused before and after the crime. The footage allegedly showed Meena entering the residential complex around 6:30 am and leaving at about 7:20 am. He was arrested from a hotel in Dwarka later the same day. According to police, the entire robbed property was recovered at the instance of the accused. The investigators also carried out extensive field enquiries and questioned a large number of people, including neighbours, security guards, domestic workers, labourers, drivers, sweepers, auto-rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers and others present in the vicinity of the crime scene. “Simultaneously, police teams were sent to Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and different parts of Delhi to verify leads, collect evidence and establish the movements of the accused before and after the crime,” the officer said. “During interrogation and investigation, we got to know that Meena had accumulated debts of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh due to online gambling. During interrogation, he told the teams that he had gone to the house intending to seek money and that the crime ‘just happened’,” the officer added. Police said statements under section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) were recorded during the investigation and a total of 82 witnesses have been cited by the prosecution to establish the chain of circumstances. Describing the investigation as scientific and evidence-based, police said the combination of CCTV analysis, forensic examination, DNA profiling, fingerprint matching, behavioural assessment, scene reconstruction and recovery of the robbed property helped establish the complete chain of evidence against the accused.