NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Highly decomposed bodies of three children were recovered from an abandoned deep freezer in Razapur, Sector-9, Rohini in New Delhi on Thursday afternoon.The three children -- Ruksar (5) Minu (3) and Tinu (5) -- are believed to have died of suffocation after the door of the freezer closed on them. Though the police have ruled out foul play and are waiting for the post-mortem report, they have registered a case of negligence against Vijay, a scrap dealer who owns the freezer.
The children were last seen on January 31, playing in front of Vijay's shop around 8.30 am. Subsequently, their parents lodged a missing persons report with the local police station.
Barely 15 yards away from the freezer, Ruksar's parents were making tea at a makeshift stall for early morning customers on that day. And Tinu's and Minu's father, Tauheed, who is cycle-rickshaw puller, had left for work around 6 am. But neither the children's parents nor the other shopkeepers saw them enter the freezer, though it waslying out in the open.
The police suspect that the children were playing hide-and-seek with their friends when they entered the freezer, probably believing it to be an ideal spot to hide. The freezer was not in use for the past two months as Vijay had given up selling milk and taken to dealing in scrap.
``The door must have shut on them because it is just like the one you find on any ordinary refrigerator. And it can be opened only from the outside,'' a senior police official says.
``Also, the freezer is air-tight. The children must have died within minutes. Even if they screamed or pounded the walls, no one would have heard them. One, because they died quickly. And second, because the walls of the freezer are so thick that any noise from inside can be heard only if someone stands very close to it.''
The bodies were recovered today after neighbouring shopkeepers complained of a foul smell. Initially, they thought it was a dead rat. But when they realised that it was especially bad near the freezer,they called Vijay who opened the door.
One of the reasons why the police believe that the children were not murdered is the position of the bodies when they were found. An official says: ``They were sitting inside. If someone had killed them he would have dumped the bodies. And no one would have killed them and dumped then inside the freezer in full view of so many shopkeepers.'' Both Tauheed and Ruksar's mother Nafisa say they do not have any conflict with anyone which could have led to their children being killed.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
