Kochi, Sep 7: An eight-year-old girl, the daughter of migrant labourers from Bihar, was allegedly abducted, sexually assaulted and abandoned in a paddy field near Aluva here on Thursday, following which the police captured the suspect within a few hours.
The child, who suffered injuries to her private parts in the sexual assault and underwent surgery, is in stable condition presently, police said.
Launching an investigation soon after being informed of the incident, the police caught the suspect, Krystal Raj (27), several hours after the incident, from under the Marthanda Verma bridge near Aluva in Ernakulam district where he was hiding and drinking alcohol.
The latest incident raises questions about the safety of women and children in the state, as it comes after a similar one in the last week of July, when a five-year-old girl, whose parents were also migrant workers from Bihar, was abducted, brutally raped and killed.
Her body was found abandoned amid garbage in a marshy area behind the Aluva fish market, near the Periyar River.
Police had arrested a person from Bihar — 28-year-old Asafak Alam — who had confessed to the crime which had shocked the conscience of the state. In the latest incident, the man allegedly abducted the eight-year-old girl from outside her home in Aluva while she was sleeping and then sexually assaulted her.
Amidst mounting criticism of the police for not preventing a repeat of the incident, a Special Investigation Team caught the suspect. On seeing the officers, the suspect attempted to escape by jumping into the nearby river under the bridge and swimming away, but was caught with the help of local residents and pulled out of the water, police said.
He is presently in police custody and being interrogated by the SIT, police said and added that Raj, who hails from Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram district, is a suspect in several criminal cases.
The man was caught after a district-wide dragnet was cast in the rural area of Ernakulam, especially around Aluva. Even as the police launched the manhunt to find the suspect, both the Congress-led UDF opposition and the BJP criticised the law and order agency and the state government over the incident. Both parties alleged that Kerala was not safe for women and children, as this was the second such crime in the space of just over one month in the same area.
While the UDF demanded that the government relinquish power if it cannot protect women and children in the state, the BJP wanted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to give up the Home portfolio that he holds.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan said that the latest incident occurred just one-and-a-half km away from the Aluva Palace where CM Vijayan was staying under heavy police protection. (PTI)
