KOCHI: Barely a month and a half after a five-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Aluva, another minor girl was abducted and sexually assaulted near the town in the early hours of Thursday. The eight-year-old, daughter of a couple from Bihar was abducted while she was sleeping in her house near Edayappuram.
Police launched a massive hunt, and within hours, nabbed the accused, Christal Raj aka Satheesh, a native of Chenkal, Thiruvananthapuram, from his hideout under the Marthanda Varma bridge. Though the 27-year-old attempted to escape by jumping into the Periyar, the officers managed to catch him with the help of local residents.
Police said Christal, who is known by his nickname ‘Kokku’ in Aluva, is a habitual offender with several cases pending against him. He was released from Viyyur Central Prison on bail only in August.
According to police, the incident happened between midnight and 2am. The girl’s father was away in Thiruvananthapuram as part of his job. Her mother was sleeping inside a room, and the victim and her siblings on a cot in the hall of the small house. It is suspected that the accused unbolted the door through a window, and abducted the girl. He also stole a mobile phone, the police said.
‘CCTV footage helped police nab accused in minor assault case’
Around 2am, E S Sukumaran, a local resident, came out of the house after hearing the cries of the girl and saw her and the suspect. Growing suspicious, Sukumaran alerted his neighbours. However, the duo was gone by then. Sukumaran and his neighbours launched a search for the girl.
Later, the residents found the girl, with injuries to her private parts. After enquiring her whereabouts, they tracked her home, located around 1km away, and took her home. It was only then that her family came to know that she had been abducted.
The residents alerted the police and also took the girl to the Government Medical College, Kalamassery. She is responding well to the treatment, the police said. Though the police reached the spot, they could not find the accused. The police then obtained CCTV footage of the accused from a nearby house. The victim and the witness identified the suspect in the footage. Ernakulam Rural SP Vivek Kumar, who visited the spot, constituted a special investigation team to nab the accused and probe the incident.
According to the police, Christal moved to Kochi after he was involved in a case pertaining to the sexual assault on a 65-year-old mentally challenged woman in 2017. He was involved in several criminal cases, including theft. The police said Christal, who had shifted his operations to Aluva one-and-a-half years ago, was involved in theft of mobile phones and other electronic items in Aluva and Perumbavoor regions. He used to roam around during night. He hadn’t been maintaining any contact with his family members in Thiruvananthapuram in the past two years, the police said. “An investigation based on the mobile phone that went missing from the house of the victim and the CCTV footage helped the police track the accused,” said an officer.
“Upon noticing a person similar to the one in the CCTV footage released by the police, employees of a bar hotel on the banks of the Periyar in Aluva alerted the cops. On seeing the policemen, the accused, who was hiding under the Marthanda Varma bridge, jumped into the river. However, two headload workers Joshy and Murukan, jumped into the water caught the accused and handed him over to the police,” said the police officer.
A detailed interrogation of the accused is underway. It was on July 29 that a five-year-old migrant girl was found raped and murdered in Aluva. The police later arrested the accused Asafak Alam, 28, a native of Bihar.
CRIME AGAINST MINORS ON RISE
BANGLADESHI HELD FOR ABUSING MINOR IN ALAPPUZHA
Alappuzha: A Bangladesh national was arrested on Thursday for sexually abusing a girl at Arthunkal. Police said the incident took place on August 23.
BANGLADESH NATIONAL ARRESTED FOR ABUSING MINOR
Alappuzha: A Bangladesh national was arrested on Thursday for sexually abusing a minor girl at Arthunkal. Officials said the alleged incident happened on August 23 when the accused, identified as Ariful Islam 26, a scrap collector, trespassed into the victim’s house and attacked her. She was alone at home at the time. The investigation also revealed that Ariful, a native of Pirojpur in Bangladesh, had entered India illegally without a valid passport and visa. As such, he has also been charged under sections of the Foreigners Act, officials said.