Kochi: A heart-wrenching incident has emerged from Kerala, where a minor girl was brutally raped and strangulated to death after being abducted by a migrant worker from her house.
According to the police, the five-year-old child’s body was found dumped in a sack in a marshy area behind a local market in nearby Aluva yesterday. The autopsy report confirmed that she was raped and strangulated to death.
The minor went missing on Friday, and the accused man was apprehended by the police later in the day.
“We received the complaint at 7.10 PM, and an FIR was registered before 8 PM on Friday. Our team checked the CCTV visuals and found that the child was with the labourer. We apprehended him at 9.30 PM itself. However, he was in an inebriated state, and the child was not with him,” Vivek Kumar, Ernakulam Rural SP, told the media.
Kumar confirmed to PTI that the minor girl was raped and strangulated to death.
The victim was the child of a migrant couple from Bihar, living at the Garage junction in Kochi. She went missing from her house on Friday evening. Her body was found dumped in a sack in a swampy area behind a local market. Marks on her body showed that she was brutally assaulted and sexually abused. Police stated that the accused used garbage and sacks to cover the body.
Police checked the CCTV cameras in the area, based on which the labourer was arrested. The accused also hailed from Bihar and was staying in a room on the first floor of the building where the victim’s family was residing.
Police stated that on Friday night, they faced difficulties in interrogating and gathering details from the accused as he was intoxicated.
“Today morning, he confessed to the crime. However, he also tried to mislead the investigation team,” Kochi Range DIG, Srinivas A, told mediapersons.
Yesterday, local residents informed the police of seeing the child with the migrant worker near the market area on Friday. Following the information, a police team rushed to the spot, searched the area, and recovered the body.
According to locals, the land behind the market is an isolated area and also a waste dump site. They stated that the area was frequented by anti-social elements, and alcohol and drug consumption were rampant there.
The Kerala police yesterday posted an apology to the victim’s family on all its social media handles, stating that their efforts to reunite the minor girl with her parents went in vain.
മകളേ മാപ്പ്🌹#keralapolice pic.twitter.com/cCY3boF8hM
— Kerala Police (@TheKeralaPolice) July 29, 2023
The opposition Congress strongly criticized the state police, alleging lapses on their part in tracing the child. V D Satheesan, the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, pointed out that the child was inside Aluva town itself but was not found on time.
Satheesan also stated that the police failed to take action even after it became evident that the accused had abducted the child.
On the other hand, the state police chief, Shaik Darvesh Saheb, refuted the charges and asserted that there were no lapses on the part of the investigators. Rural SP Kumar informed the media that the accused was apprehended within an hour after the police were informed about the crime.
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