COIMBATORE: Last Monday, when the Coimbatore Rural police summoned earthmovers hoping to exhume the body of 15-year-old Lakshmi, who is presumed to have been killed in 2007, her father M Mohanrasu could not hide his desperation and anger. For the last seven years, the man from Zamin Uthukuli in Pollachi has been conducting a parallel investigation, digging out evidence about suspects, passing on information to a reluctant police and knocking the doors of judiciary in vain to trace his daughter.
Ironically, now three suspects who were initially let off by the police have claimed to have killed the girl.
“My daughter left home on April 24, 2007 to visit a temple. Five days later a man, identifying himself as Ismail, called claiming that he and Lakshmi were at Coonoor and had decided to elope. I immediately filed a complaint at the Pollachi West Police Station but the then Inspector, Anbazhagan, did not proceed beyond preliminary investigation,” charged Mohanrasu. On inquiring in the neighbourhood, a grocer had told Mohanrasu that his daughter used to make regular calls to someone from his PCO.
He shared the information with the police who collected the call records but let off the suspect Thangaraj.
Mohanrasu then approached the BSNL and gathered the call logs from the PCO and found that Lakshmi had called Thangaraj 32 times in a month including nine times on the day she had gone missing.
“I shared this with the Inspector. He summoned Thangaraj and allowed him to go after questioning. Now, the same Thangaraj has confessed to have killed my minor daughter. May be she could have been saved had the police acted firmly,” rued Mohanrasu.
He then filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court, praying for a direction to trace his
daughter. More: P5