Tirupattur police on Saturday arrested a 19-year-old boy on charges of murdering a nine-year-old girl in Andiyappanur village near Kursilapet on Thursday.
Police arrested Guna, a resident of Andiyappanur village, in connection with the death of Gayathri. The girl, who was studying in class IV in a government school in the village, had gone to the temple in the village on Thursday evening. She did not return.
Gayathri’s father Ramachandran and family members went in search of the girl after she did not return till 8.10 pm. They found her in a banana plantation with injuries all over her body. Following a complaint from Gayathri’s parents, the Kursilapet police registered a case and picked five youth on suspicion.
On interrogation, the police found that Guna, a school dropout, had committed the crime in an inebriated condition.
However, the relatives of the girl claimed that more than one person was involved in the crime and also suspected the involvement of 17-year-old Vimal (name changed). Gayathri’s elder brother Sivakumar said, “Vimal had called me from his father’s mobile phone around 9 pm on Thursday when I was in Bengaluru. He told me that my sister had met with an accident. He again called me and said that someone had murdered her and thrown her body inside the banana grove.”
He added that the sniffer dog, which was brought by the police to track down the murderers, headed to Vimal’s house from the banana plantation. “I told the village elders about Vimal’s suspicious telephone call. Following that, the police picked him up along with Guna and three other boys for enquiry,” he added.
Police, however, said that Guna in his confession stated that when he asked Gayathri where was she coming from, the girl abused him using filthy language. Infuriated over this, he assaulted her and pushed her against a wall. He took to his heels after the girl collapsed.
The police also ruled out the possibility of sexual assault as motive behind the murder. “The post mortem report has revealed that there was no sign of sexual assault,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police of Tirupattur M Nagarajan.