GHAZIABAD: A day before Holi, a family reported a seven-year-old girl's death to police, and her neighbour was arrested.
The allegation was that the girl had eaten ‘kadhi' made by the neighbour, which made her so sick that she never recovered. Shanti Devi, who lives in the Loni border area, was taken into custody and charged under Section 105 of BNS (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
Police sent the seven-year-old's body for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Was it food poisoning?
The report has thrown up answers far more terrible. According to the autopsy, the seven-year-old was sexually assaulted and died of strangulation. With the investigation turning on its head, the complaint itself became the centre of the probe.

Yes, Shanti Devi had indeed cooked and sent over ‘kadhi', but all other claims – of the seven-year-old and six of her family members getting diarrhoea after eating it, and the girl dying during treatment at GTB Hospital in Delhi – were found to be fake.
On Monday, the seven-year-old's father was arrested as the prime suspect of the rape and murder. The 52-year-old, who has five children, had put together a coverup plan using the other children to build an alibi. Police said he got himself and the other children checked at the OPD of GTB, claiming a tummy infection. They were evaluated and sent home.
Ajay Kumar Singh, ACP of Ankur Vihar, told TOI, "The accused had submitted an application that he didn't want a postmortem of the girl at GTB Hospital, and we have evidence for the same. To frame his neighbour, he filed a complaint at Loni border police station and an FIR was registered against Shanti Devi. She was remanded in judicial custody."
Police will now file an application in court to release Shanti Devi. "On March 14, postmortem report revealed the child was raped and murdered. That same evening, her last rites were performed by the father. After that, he didn't return home. We arrested him near SRB school on Monday," the ACP said.
While questioning, the accused, police said, admitted to what he had done. "He said he was drunk. Around 3am on March 13, his five children and wife were sleeping in one room. He lifted his seven-year-old daughter from the bed and went into another room. He raped her. When she started crying, he strangled her. In the morning, around 7-8 am, he called a friend and told him that his daughter had fallen ill after eating kadhi. They took the minor on a motorcycle to a local clinic. The doctor at the clinic told the family to take her to a hospital. They took her to GTB, where doctors declared her brought dead," said Singh.
Police said the accused called his other children to the hospital after this and told them to feign sickness. "They were told to tell the doctors they had a stomach ache," said the ACP.
Shyam Sunder, who runs the clinic the girl was taken to, told TOI he didn't find a pulse when he checked her. "The child's father told me he had stomach pain since morning. When I didn't find a pulse, I told him to take her to a hospital immediately, but he insisted that I treat her. He wasted more than five minutes and left my clinic only when I shouted at him to go to a hospital."
An FIR has been filed against the 52-year-old man, a property dealer, at Loni border police station under sections 103 (1) (murder), 65 (2) (rape of a woman under 12 years old) and relevant sections of the Pocso Act. Police will submit a report in court so that Shanti Devi gets released from jail," Singh said.
Shanti Devi had given kadhi to some other families in the locality as well, but none of them complained of any sickness.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)