Police claimed on Sunday that a 5-year-old girl whose body was discovered near Aluva market in Kerala’s Kochi on Saturday was raped and strangled to death after being stolen from her home.
According to officials, the youngster is the daughter of a migrant family from Bihar who has been living in Kerala for the past eight years.
“The post-mortem findings of the minor confirmed that the minor was brutally raped. The accused thrashed her face with a stone. She was strangled to death with her own clothes. The girl suffered serious injuries on her head during the attack,” a senior police official said while quoting the post-mortem report.
According to the official, the accused dumped her body in a sack near the market after the crime. According to officials, the event occurred on Friday afternoon about 3 p.m. The young lady was abducted from her house in Garage Junction. On the same day, she was raped and strangled to death with her own garments at 5:30 p.m.
On the same day, about 7:10 p.m., the family filed a missing person report. On the same day, a FIR was filed. During the first investigation, police apprehended a man named Asfaq Alam on Friday evening at 9:30 p.m. on suspicion and later took him into jail.
“The Suspect was in an inebriated state and attempted to mislead the interrogation. But when confronted with CCTV footage showing him kidnapping the minor, he confessed to the crime on Saturday morning,” the police said.
“The police found the body of the minor dumped in a sack in a marshy area littered with garbage and plastics. After inquest proceedings were completed, police sent the body to Kalamassery medical college for postmortem, officials said.
“Further investigations are underway. The motive of the crime has been the intention to rape the minor,” the police revealed while adding that a 14-member special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to further probe the matter.