New Delhi: A 16-year-old girl from Jharkhand, employed as a maid in Delhi’s Paschim Vihar, was butchered into pieces when she asked for her salary after a year. Delhi Police have arrested the accused, Manjeet Karketa (30) over the heinous crime.

The minor girl, identified as Soni Kumari, hailed from Ranchi’s Malgo village. According to police, she was brought to Delhi by Karketa and his accomplices Sahu and Gauri whose job was to lure young and poor girls from Jharkhand with promises of employment in Delhi.

“They used to bring these girl to Delhi and get them employed as maids,” said additional DCP (outer) RS Sagar. They did the same with the deceased.

According to police, Manjeet would collect Soni’s salary to keep her under his control. He had not handed over her salary for a year.

After a year, the victim decided to return to Jharkhand and started demanding for her salary. The accused refused and instead tried to convince her otherwise, but Soni was relentless. When he failed to convince her, Manjeet decided to kill Soni. “She was chopped into pieces and the body parts were packed in a bag,” said a senior police officer.

The police got a PCR call on May 4 about a chopped body lying in a bag in C-block of Rao Vihar, Mianwali Nagar of Paschim Vihar. Police initiated investigation and started efforts to identify the body.

CCTV footage in the area were analyzed and tenants of more than 200 houses around the crime scene were verified. During the course of investigation, it was found that one of the tenants was missing since the day of the murder.

On further probing, it was confirmed that the tenant, Manjeet, also hailed from Jharkhand. Manjeet was a native of Jharkhand’s Gumla district. Subsequently, a raid was conducted at his village but he was not there.

After almost two weeks, police received a tip-off about Manjeet that he would be visiting his rented house on May 17. Karketa was finally nabbed by the Delhi Police. During interrogation, he confessed to the brutal murder.