On a day when the President of India Droupadi Murmu has expressed concerns over the heinous cases of crimes against women, another shocking case of rape of a 12-year-old girl has come to light from the Kanjhawala area of Delhi. A 52-year-old man named Mohammad Sharif has been arrested in connection with the heinous crime. He is a peer working in a cemetery. He had taken the minor victim to the graveyard on the pretext of exorcism where he raped her. The victim has been admitted to the hospital for treatment.
The incident is said to have occurred on Monday (26th August). According to reports, the case pertains to the Kanjhawala police station area of Delhi. Both the victim and the accused hail from the same community. It is pertinent to note that the age of the minor victim is not clear as some media reports have claimed that the minor was even younger, with some reporting her age as 9 while others said she was just 7.
The minor victim’s father filed a Police complaint in this matter on Tuesday (27th August). In the complaint, he stated that he is a fruit seller and a father of 2 daughters and 1 son. He is suffering from chronic illness. The 52-year-old accused, Mohammad Sharif often used to visit the victim’s house on the pretext of curing his illness through exorcism. It is said that he had evil intentions towards the minor girl.
On Monday, Mohammad Sharif once again visited the victim’s house. After reaching there, he asked the minor girl to come to his house on the pretext that he would give her a ration. However, it is said that his plan failed when the victim’s brother went there.
The accused then asked the victim to approach him for exorcism. Later on, Sharif took the girl to the bushes near the cemetery where he raped the victim. When the victim started crying, he tried to soothe her by offering money.
Mohammad Sharif is also accused of threatening the minor victim and warning her that if she told anything about it to anyone, her father would be killed.
Scared of his threat, the victim came back home and remained silent. A day later, her health suddenly deteriorated. When her elder sister became suspicious, she inquired. Ultimately the victim narrated her ordeal to the family members after which her father filed a Police complaint on Tuesday.
A day later, the officials said that a minor girl was allegedly raped by a 52-year-old man in a graveyard in west Delhi’s Rohini under the guise of performing occult rituals to cure her ailing father.
According to the complaint, accused Mohammad Sharif first took her to a graveyard in Delhi’s Kanjhawala area claiming that he would perform ‘black magic’ to cure her ailing father who is suffering from a chronic disease. However, the accused raped her at the graveyard.
As per reports, the Delhi Police received a PCR call on 27th August detailing the sexual abuse. A senior police officer said, “A call regarding the sexual assault of a girl was received at Kanjhawala police station on Tuesday. A police team was sent to the spot.”
Based on the complaint, the Police filed an FIR and booked the accused Mohammad Sharif under section 65(2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and relevant sections of the POCSO Act, the Police said.
The police officer said, “We have arrested Mohammad Sharif. The girl was also medically examined at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital. Further investigation is underway.”
Incidentally, while reporting about the case, several media houses have carried misleading headlines claiming that a ‘Tantrik’ raped a minor girl.
Several media houses in their reports have addressed Mohammad Sharif, who works and does exorcism at the cemetery, as a Tantrik. However, this is not the first time the media have described an accused peer, or exorcist in such cases as ‘Tantrik’. In several cases in the past, attempts to secularise the crime has been undertaken when the accused, ostensibly belonging to the minority community, is referred to as a Tantrik to obscure his religious identity.
