The stretch around Aastha Kunj Park where a 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped had already figured in Delhi Police’s dark-spot surveys, which are meant to identify poorly lit areas. Yet the lighting gaps remained when the alleged assault took place on Monday (September 21, 2026) evening.

The park and its surrounding stretches are among the areas where police have flagged inadequate illumination to civic agencies. The surveys are conducted regularly, with police identifying stretches where there is little or no lighting despite regular movement and writing to the agency concerned for repairs or installation of streetlights.

Of the total 1,525 streetlights recorded across the southeast district, 33% were found to be non-functional, according to data accessed by The Hindu. A senior police officer said the number was particularly concerning given the size of the area and the volume of pedestrian movement, adding that even 1,500 streetlights were inadequate for the district.

In Amar Colony, around a kilometre from the park and an area with several paying guest accommodations and flats housing women students, police found 14 of 54 streetlights non-functional on the Captain Gaur Marg–Modi Mill Flyover stretch. On the Lala Lajpat Rai Marg–Kalkaji Mandir stretch, 43 of 150 lights were not working, while 10 of 58 on Raja Dheer Singh Marg were found non-functional.

In the Kalkaji police station area, eight of 20 streetlights near the Nehru Place flyover were also found to be non-functional.

“These deficiencies and many others were shared with the DDA, which manages the park and the areas around it, but the repairs and installation were not carried out,” said a police official, requesting anonymity.

The DDA, meanwhile, said the lighting installations in the park were functional and were inspected regularly.

The dark-spot survey is intended to work as an early-warning mechanism. Police identify places where darkness, pedestrian movement and inadequate surveillance could create safety risks, and communicate the gaps to civic authorities for corrective action. But the Aastha Kunj case has brought into focus what happens when deficiencies identified through the exercise persist.

A spot visit by The Hindu after the incident also found stretches inside the park that were dark after sunset. Police said the CCTV camera at Gate No. 7 was non-functional, while footage from other cameras covering the park was used to trace and identify the accused.

Police officers investigating the case also described the lighting inside the park as “poor”, with some stretches becoming so dark in the evening that visibility was negligible without a torch. The lack of illumination, officers said, made patrolling and surveillance difficult.

The concerns are significant because Aastha Kunj acts as a connecting route between neighbourhoods including Sant Nagar, Garhi Village, Greater Kailash and the Nehru Place area, and is used by students, residents and commuters moving through the area.

The alleged gang rape has since been followed by fresh complaints from women students in other public spaces including National Park, adjacent to the college’s back gate and Hakikat Park in Mukherjee Nagar.