The case of a missing 5-year-old girl from Aluva in Kerala has turned out to be a shocking homicide. Investigators discovered her body placed inside a gunny bag in a garbage dump on 29 July, a day after she was taken from her rented home in Mukkat Plaza, Kochi in Kerala. According to police, she was kidnapped while her parents were at work, by a man identified as a migrant worker named Asfaq Alam.
However, while Kerala-based media like Manorama and Matribhumi have reported that Asfaq Alam is from Bihar, some others like Indian Express and Hindu report that the accused is from Assam.
The body of the girl in a sac was found by daily wage workers at the Aluva market near the Periyar River.
The victim was identified by the Ernakulam Rural police as Chandini, the daughter of Ramdhar Tiwari, a native of Bishambharpur in the Pashchim Champaran region of Bihar. She was a first-grader at a nearby school and had three siblings. The accused who lived near her house was taken into custody by police.
Vivek Kumar, Superintendent of Police (Ernakulam Rural), stated that the girl was reported missing from her home on 28 July around 3 o’clock. He informed, “Her parents came to know that she was missing when they returned after work. At 7 pm, we got a complaint and around 8 pm we registered the First Information Report. CCTV footage showed a person moving along with the missing girl.”
He further added, “Later in the night, we tracked down Alam. We could not get any details from him at the time as he was in an inebriated condition. On Saturday, he confessed to the crime.” The senior official confirmed that the body was retrieved from the waste yard in the market. He pointed out, “The motive behind the crime is under investigation.”
The perpetrator came to live in the same building as the minor, two days back. The family of the victim is living there for the last four years. The residential complex provides accommodation to migrant workers.
During the interrogation, Asfaq Alam claimed that he sold her to another person in exchange for cash. He claimed that a man named Sakeer Hussain was the individual who took her away after he traded her with the help of a friend. Based on his statement, police took two more persons in custody on Saturday morning.
It has been revealed during the probe that Alam abducted the child near the railway gate at Thaikkattukara on Friday afternoon. In CCTV footage he was seen crossing the road along with the girl and then boarding a bus to Thrissur. However, it is not clear what happened after that.
