The body of the five-year-old girl whose body was recovered on Saturday, July 29 after she went missing for a day in Kerala’s Ernakulam was kept at the Thaikkattukara UP School where she studied. Her classmates, teachers, and hundreds others assembled to pay their last respects. The Aluva police said that the child was sexually assaulted and had bruises all over her body. According to the police, she was strangulated to death after sexual assault.
The child went missing on Friday afternoon while she was with her siblings. Later that day when her parents returned from work, they realised that she was missing and filed a police complaint. CCTV visuals from the area showed Asfaq Alam, a migrant worker who had reportedly moved to the same building as the girl’s family two days back, taking the child with him. Asfaq first took her to a nearby shop, from where he bought her juice. He was then seen crossing the railway tracks and taking a bus.
On Saturday afternoon, the Kerala police put up a Facebook post saying “Forgive us, daughter,” adding that they were not able to bring the child alive to her parents. Massive criticism flowed in against the police after the child’s body was recovered near the Periyar river close to the town market in nearby Aluva. Though the police took Asfaq into custody on Friday itself, they said he was in an inebriated state and gave misleading statements.
“After receiving the complaint at 7 pm on Friday, we started an intensive investigation. Our aim was to bring the child alive to her parents. CCTV footage was collected and the accused was identified as soon as possible. The accused was found and arrested in the morning. It hurts every police officer just like you to not be able to bring that child to her parents alive. Because we are parents too,” the Kerala police posted on Facebook.
However, opposition leaders and the public are furious at the police for what they termed their inefficiency. Leader of Opposition VD Satheeshan on Saturday said that even though the child had been within city limits, the police were still not able to save her.
Opposition MLAs Anwar Sadath, K Muraleedharan, Indian Union Muslim League leader PMA Salam, BJP leader K Surendran, and many other leaders pointed to the incident as a failure of the police as well as the home ministry.
Minister for Industries P Rajeeve said that the police had cracked the case within 24 hours but had been unable to save the victim’s life.
The girl’s funeral will be held later on Sunday at the Smrithi Theeram public cemetery in Aluva’s Keezhmaadu.