The death of six-year-old Kerala girl, Devananda, will be probed by a Special Investigation Team, the Kerala government announced on Saturday. The girl, who had been missing from home, was found dead in a lake near her house in Kollam district on Friday.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) will be headed by Chathannur ACP George Koshy, reports the Times of India. A team of forensic experts, headed by Dr Valsala of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College who conducted the post-mortem, will also be visiting the area in the coming days.
It was on Thursday morning that six-year-old Devananda, who was playing in front of her home in Kollam, was found to be missing. The next day, on Friday morning, she was found dead at Ithikkara lake, located 500 metres from her home.
Family members of the child have now alleged that the child did not die of mere drowning and that she was kidnapped by someone. Following the post-mortem, the forensic experts had stated that the cause of death was drowning.
“Somebody has kidnapped our child. The sniffer police dogs went towards the west side of the house. Devananda never went that side. If at all she went out of the house all by herself, she must have entered the road from the front side of the house,” Malayalam Manorama reported Devananda’s grandfather Mohanan Pillai as saying.
The family has also demanded a detailed inquiry into the case. “She won’t go anywhere without telling me. She went missing just within a few seconds. That is why I am suspicious and want to know what exactly happened,” Devananda’s mother Dhanya told the media on Saturday.
Devananda’s father C Pradeep also told the media that she is not used to going with strangers. “A detailed probe should be conducted to find out what actually happened to our child. We are also waiting for the detailed forensic report,” said Pradeep. The family believes that Devananda would never try to walk on the makeshift bridge and that she was not familiar with the route. Her mother Dhanya also said that she had never even taken her daughter to a temple on the other side of the bridge. The mother insisted that Devananda was a child who would never leave the house without informing her.
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