Tirupattur police picked up five youth, aged between 14 and 20, in connection with the murder of a nine-year-old girl, who was found dead in a banana plantation in Andiyappanur village on Thursday night.
Gayathri, a class-IV student in a government school had gone to a temple for Pournami Puja. The ill-fated incident occurred when she was returning home around 7.15 pm on Thursday.
Gayathri’s parents went in search of her when she did not return home till after 8 pm. Ramachandran’s neighbours had told him to search for her in the banana plantation in the village, as they had heard a scream from the spot. Gayathri’s parents and relatives went to the plantation only to find her dead, police said.
Ramachandran lodged a complaint with the Kursilapet police, who visited the spot and conducted an inquiry. They recovered the body and sent it to the GH at Tirupattur for autopsy.
Forensic and finger prints experts were pressed into service.
A four-member team headed by professor of forensic medicine of Government Vellore Medical College Hospital, K Selvaraj, performed the post-mortem on Friday.
The post-mortem revealed that the girl had sustained injuries on her head and abdomen, apart from contusions on her face and other parts of her body. Internal injuries on the abdomen were the cause of her death, assistant director of the Forensic Wing, K Pari, assisting the investigation team, said.
Though there was no sign of sexual assault, the police have not ruled out the possibility of attempt to rape. Collector P Sankar visited Tirupattur at 10.30 am on Friday, and stayed there till the post mortem of the girl’s body was completed.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Tirupattur M Nagarajan and a police team had picked up the five youth from the village in connection with the murder.
“The murder took place between 7.15 pm and 8.10 pm on Thursday. None of the villagers saw the murderer as there was a power cut at that time. We are interrogating the youth on suspicion,” the DSP said.
He said they would be able to ascertain the motive behind the murder and zero in on those involved, after interrogating the youth.