KASARGOD: Riyana ’s mother Fousya and the action committee leaders has left from here on Sunday for the Gandhi Bhavan orphanage in Pathanapuram in Kollam district as the 16-yearold girl reported missing from here for the past several months was traced in the orphanage on Saturday.
Riyana who was reported missing under mysterious circumstances on May 18, 2009, was located by a local activist of the PDP.
Fousya had staged a fast near the Moffusil bus stand here which was called off last week to continue it in front of the Secretariat. Human right activists and the action committee had taken out rallies in the town demanding that Riyana be traced and handed over to the family.
The distraught mother had filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court which had granted a specific time limit to the Crime Branch to trace the girl. But Riyana was traced in the orphanage on Saturday as the petition filed by the action committee demanding a CBI probe into the incident was scheduled to come up before the court on January 15.
According to the investigation agency, Riyana who was missing since May 18, 2009, was sent to the orphanage in Pathanapuram by the police on June 1, last year when found loitering in the Punalur town in a mentally deranged state.
Even though Riyana was traced in the orphanage, the Crime Branch police have to tie up many loose ends in the case. Though the case had hogged state-wide attention following the agitation here, the investigation agency failed to gather information from the orphanages in the state.
The orphanage authorities had recorded her name as Riyana which she had told the officials there. Despite the judicial intervention in the case and the public interest generated by the media reports, the authorities failed to inform the police that the missing girl was staying in the orphanage.
Meanwhile, the PDP alleged here on Sunday that there was a conspiracy to hush up the truth. The PDP demanded a probe into her whereabouts till she was rescued on June 1 and sent to the orphanage.