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Missing children found dead in freezer

Five-year-old Ruksar, his sister Minu (3) and friend Tinu (5) had been missing since January 31.

Yesterday, February 5, the Delhi police found them in Rohini, right across the street they lived -- in the deep freezer of an abandoned milk shop. Dead.

Ruksar was squatting opposite the door while Tinu and his sister were on its sides, facing each other. Minu was still clutching the doll she was playing with when last seen. All three bodies were in a highly decomposed state.

The police had opened the freezer after neighbouring shop-owners -- the milk shop was in the crowded Razapur village market -- informed them of a foul smell which had grown stronger in the last two days.

A police official said preliminary investigations showed that the children, who were playing in the street, had somehow got the freezer door open and wandered in. The door, unfortunately, had closed behind them.

"They must have died within minutes after closing the door," the official said, "The inside of the freezer is air tight."

The bodies were sent to the Sabzi Mandi mortuary for a postmortem.

"They were playing in front of our house and I was making roti for them," says Tinu's shocked mother Rekha, "At 8.30 am I went looking for them. But they were nowhere to be seen."

Rekha, who works as a maidservant, informed her husband Tohid, who plies a cycle ricksaw. Together with Ruksar's parents, the couple went searching for the children. But unknowing to them, the children had already suffocated to death.

Tohid said a complaint was lodged with the local police the same day. However, the police claimed they received a formal complaint only on February 2.

Meanwhile, the police have registered a case of negligence against the milk-shop owner who had stopped using the freezer more than a month ago. It is a few feet under his shop, six feet in length and three feet wide.

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