THOOTHUKUDI: An eight-year-old girl child was allegedly strangulated to death by a neighbour after she wanted to watch TV at Kalkulam here on Wednesday.
Sources said the victim, Muthu Saranya (8), had gone to a neighbour's house to watch TV after her mother Uchumakali left for daily wage work. Sources said Saranya's father Sekar abandoned the family. When the family members had gone to search her, Saranya was found dead on the bank of a stream located one-and-a-half kilometre away, said sources. Sathankulam police registered a case and secured two suspects for interrogation.
A preliminary investigation suggest that the first suspect strangled Saranya after she wanted to watch TV at the former's house even as suspect was quarrelling with his father, said sources.
After she collapsed, he allegedly dumped the body in a drum, transported it using a vehicle with the help of his friend and threw it at the stream, sources said.
A senior police official ruled out rape, but said the cause of death would be known only after postmortem examination report is out.