The body of a five-year-old girl was recovered by the police from near the Periyar River close to the town market in Aluva in Ernakulam district of Kerala on Saturday, July 29. The body is suspected to be that of a child who went missing from her home in Thaikkattukara in the district at around 3 pm on Friday. She had been home with her siblings when the incident occurred. When her parents returned home later in the evening, they found that the child was missing. Unable to trace her, they alerted the police, who issued lookout notices with the photo of the child. The body of the child was recovered after nearly 21 hours.
CCTV visuals from the area showed Asfaq Alam, a migrant worker who reportedly moved to the same building as child’s family two days back, taking the child with him. Asfaq first took her to a nearby shop, from where he bought her juice. CCTV visuals showed him crossing the railway tracks and taking a bus. The police did not know where he had taken the child after this until an eye witness informed them on Saturday morning about seeing the child with the suspect in Aluva market.
Asfaq was taken into custody by the Aluva police on Friday itself but was found to be drunk and gave misleading statements to the police. However, police said that the latter’s involvement in the crime has not been established.
Aluva Rural SP Vivek Kumar told media that the Aluva East police station received the child’s mother’s complaint at 7.10 pm on Friday. “A First Information Report was registered by 8 pm. Based on CCTV visuals, Bihar native Asfaq Alam was taken into custody by 9.30 pm. However, he could not be questioned properly at night as he wasn't fully conscious. On Saturday morning, he confessed to the murder of the child,” he said. The arrest of the accused was recorded at 11.30 am on Saturday morning under section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code.
DIG Sreenivas informed the media that the case will be investigated by a Special Investigation Team. “The team will be under the leadership of the Aluva DYSP with the Aluva East Inspector of Police as the investigation officer. The investigation in the case is in the primary stage. We need to determine the motive behind the case and ascertain whether he had any accomplices,” he said.
Thajudheen, a headload worker in the Aluva market, told the media that he had seen Asfaq in the market on Friday evening along with the child. Since he found him suspicious, he had asked him whose child it was, to which Asfaq replied that it was his own. Thajudheen said that three others had gone in the same direction as Asfaq later, but that he hadn’t paid much attention to it. He alerted the police about the incident after the news of the missing child spread.
The Aluva police are conducting the inquest at the place where the body has been found. The missing child’s father has been brought to the site, and the process of identifying the body is underway. The police also took Asfaq for gathering evidence but could not do so because the crowd had turned unruly.