THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram Additional District and Sessions POCSO court has found Hassan Kutty (45), also known as Kabeer, guilty in the case where the two-year-old daughter of a nomadic couple was allegedly kidnapped and raped.
The court will pronounce the sentence on October 3. Hassan Kutty had been accused in a POCSO case earlier too.
The incident happened on February 19, 2024.
The girl was sleeping on the roadside near Chackai with her parents, who had come to Kerala from Hyderabad to sell honey, when Hasan Kutty abducted her. He took her to a deserted area behind BrahMos Aerospace and assaulted her. Believing she had died, he abandoned her and fled the scene.
After the child went missing, her parents filed a complaint. Police investigation located the child the next evening, around 7.30 pm, in an unconscious state, near the BrahMos compound wall. She was immediately taken to SAT Hospital and her life was saved.
A major breakthrough came from CCTV footage that showed a man walking away with the child. Over 100 CCTV cameras were examined before the suspect was identified. Hassan Kutty was arrested from Kollam on the 13th day after the incident. He had shaved his head and fled to Palani in an attempt to avoid identification.
Medical examination confirmed the child was sexually assaulted. Hair samples found on the accused's clothes matched the victim's during forensic testing. Samples collected from the crime scene and from the accused's clothes were also found to be a match.
Police then shifted the child to a shelter run by the Child Welfare Committee.
The investigation was led by Pettah Police Inspector K Sreejith, who filed the charge sheet. The prosecution examined 41 witnesses and produced 62 documents and 11 material evidence. Public Prosecutor K K Ajith Prasad and advocate V C Bindu appeared for the prosecution.