KOCHI: Though police were successful in nabbing Asafak Alam who murdered the 5-year-old in Aluva within three hours of getting a complaint, their hopes were shattered when the accused confessed to the crime on Saturday. Asafak was in the custody of the police by 10 pm on Friday. The cops who were grilling the accused were hopeful that the child was alive.
After the murder was confirmed, Kerala Police posted an apology on its Facebook account announcing the arrest of the accused. A senior police officer who was part of the team which was tasked to nab the accused said that they suspect that Alam murdered the victim even before the investigation was started.
“It was around 7.10 PM that the mother of the victim lodged a complaint with the Aluva police. Even before the FIR was registered, three or four teams were dispatched to track the accused and the child. One team went to the house of the victim, rest went to the bus station, railway station and Aluva town. It was around 8 PM that the FIR was registered, but we collected the CCTV footage of the accused by then and sent it to informers in Aluva and other police stations,” the officer said.
The police officer said that tracking Alam was easy as CCTV footage revealing the colour of his dress and physical attributes were available from several locations. “By 8.30 PM and 9 PM, we received information from several sources that they saw the accused in Aluva. Thus between 9.30 PM and 10 PM, we nabbed him from Thottakkattukara based on the information,” the officer said.
Despite repeated questioning, Alam did not disclose much. “He was behaving abnormally. He never stuck to one version. During the interrogation on Friday night, he hoped the child was alive. His initial versions on Friday night gave us hope,” the police officer said.
However, his revelation in the morning came as a shocker to the cops who had been searching for the child during the entire night. “Without any regret, he said that he murdered the child. But the sexual assault was confirmed only after we recovered the body. He admitted to raping the child after we questioned him based on the injuries found on her body,” the police officer said.