Cab driver arrested after 10-year-old girl murdered on Gurugram-Faridabad Road
A 29-year-old cab driver allegedly scouted an area in South Delhi for 45 minutes before kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 10-year-old girl, whose body was later recovered from a forested area along the Gurugram-Faridabad Road. The Delhi Police revealed details of the premeditated crime on Thursday, following the arrest of the accused, Bashu Kumar Singh.
The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Monday. The victim was sleeping on a footpath near CDR Chowk, close to Chhattarpur Road, alongside her parents and three younger siblings when she was abducted.
According to police investigators, Singh first drove past the sleeping family between 3:30 AM and 3:45 AM. He spotted the girl but decided to wait because she was sleeping close to her mother. He drove towards Chhattarpur Road and returned a short while later, waiting for the girl to move slightly away from her mother before grabbing her.
At around 4:15 AM, Singh allegedly forced the child into his car. The girl's screams alerted her father, who briefly chased the vehicle on foot but was unable to catch it.
Investigators state that Singh drove to Mandi village, where he allegedly sexually assaulted the child inside his vehicle. He then drove to the Gurugram-Faridabad Road, where he killed the girl and concealed her body in a forested area. After the crime, Singh temporarily switched off his mobile phone, but turned it back on an hour later to resume accepting rides on cab platforms to avoid suspicion.
Police traced Singh to west Delhi's Vikaspuri while he was dropping off a passenger and arrested him within six hours of the crime. The victim's body was recovered nearly 12 hours later after the accused led officers to the location. Investigators noted that Singh had attempted to clean the inside and outside of his vehicle, but forensic teams successfully recovered hair and biological samples from the car.
On Tuesday, police took Singh to Mandi village to reconstruct the sequence of events. During the exercise, Singh allegedly attempted to snatch an officer's gun, prompting a brief exchange of fire in which police shot him in the leg.
The investigation has revealed that Singh has a history of criminal activity, with five cases booked against him in Bihar's Khagaria district between 2015 and 2022, including charges of molestation, assault, attempted murder, and rioting. Police have written to three cab aggregators demanding explanations on how a man with multiple criminal cases was registered as a driver-partner.
