Two men have been arrested in connection to the brutal abduction and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl in Puducherry. The girl’s body was found in a drain near her house.

The men, identified as Vivekandan (56) and Kakka (alias) Karunas (19), have been charged IPC sections 302 (murder), 363 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful restraint) and 201 (destruction of evidence). Additionally, relevant sections of the POCSO Act and the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act (PoA) have also been evoked.  

On March 5, the gruesome murder of the child came to light after her partially decomposed body was discovered in a drain near her home 72 hours after she was reported missing by her parents. The child’s parents had reported her missing on March 2 and Muthialpet police went on to secure CCTV footage from the entire locality. However, they found no evidence to suggest that the girl had gone anywhere out of the area. 

Following a two-day search operation, a few neighbours and the police found the child’s body wrapped in a bedsheet-like material inside a drain, mere metres away from her house. Her hands and legs were tied using a coir thread. A special investigation team has been constituted under the supervision of Puducherry DIGP Brijendra Kumar Yadav. The SIT will be headed by Senior Superintendent of Police Kalaivanan. 

The discovery of her body led to large scale protests across Puducherry with demands for Chief Minister N Rangaswamy to resign. Initially, her parents had refused to accept the child’s body until the accused were arrested. The postmortem had been conducted at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER). The girl’s funeral was conducted by the family around 9:00 am on March 7 with police protection. 

The horrific crime has also drawn criticism from various political leaders including Rahul Gandhi, DMK MP Kanimozhi, Actor and Maiam founder Kamal Hassan among others.