CHENNAI: The body of a three-year-old girl child, who was missing since Saturday morning, was found on Sunday amidst garbage in the Tiruvottiyur dumpyard with signs of injury in her genitalia.
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The body was apparently dumped in a garbage bin close to her residence. Unknowingly, the Chennai Corporation's garbage collection trucks had picked up the little girl's body from the bin and taken it to a dumpyard, where it was finally spotted by a ragpicker rummaging through the trash the next morning.
Tiruvottiyur | Express
According to the police, the child was last seen playing near her house around 11 am on Saturday. The parents realised she was missing only around 2 pm when they looked for her during lunch time. They searched for her four hours in vain, and finally lodged a missing person's complaint at 8 pm on Saturday.
The police then launched a search and circulated photos of the child.
The tragic death of the girl came to light on Sunday around 10 am after a ragpicker, who was casually rummaging through a heap of garbage that the corporation’s truck had just unloaded inside the Tiruvottiyur dumpyard, found the child’s body.
The ragpicker then alerted the truck driver, who, in turn, informed his higher officials.
According to a Corporation official who was present at the dumpyard, “The child’s mouth was stuffed with cloth and gagged. There were bleeding injuries on her head.”
On information, the Tiruvottiyur police alerted the police station nearest to the area from where the truck had collected garbage that morning.
The local police informed their Tiruvottiyur counterparts that a three-year-old child had missing from the area since the previous day.
When police asked the child’s parents to come to the hospital to where the body had been shifted by then, their worst fears came true. They identified the body as that of their daughter.
“There were injury marks in her genitalia,” said a police officer privy to the case.
A corporation official said the truck had started its trip around 7.30 am and collected garbage from 25 bins in the area before reaching the dumpyard.
The police have registered a case and investigations are on to ascertain the identity of the killers.
