Neighbor sexually abused minor girl in Kasaragod, police confirm

Kasaragod: In a major step in the investigation into the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl, the Kanhangad police here on Monday identified the accused. Police alleged that a man from Coorg, the girl’s neighbor, kidnapped her and sexually abused her. According to reports, the investigation team traveled to Coorg to take him into custody.

Five days after the crime, the police obtained crucial information about the defendant. The defendant has lived in the girl’s house next door for many years. But on May 15, he suddenly left his house. Police sensed something suspicious when he suddenly left the area. Further investigation reportedly confirmed his role in the crime. Police also obtained CCTV images that showed the face of the accused. It is hinted that he is also an accused in another POCSO case.

The case
The 10-year-old girl, who was sleeping in her house, was allegedly kidnapped and sexually abused on May 15. She was found abandoned in a nearby paddy field in this northernmost district of Kerala in the early hours of Wednesday. The girl was allegedly abducted from a hamlet that falls under Hosdurg police station limits here.

According to the child’s family members, she was allegedly abducted from her grandfather’s room after he left the house to milk his cows around 3 a.m. When he returned after some time, she was found missing from the bed. They said the grandfather always went out after closing the door but never locked it. The other family members, including the victim’s father, mother and sister, were sleeping in another room in the same house, they said.

Abandoned in a rice field, the unfortunate girl knocked on the door of a nearby house and called her father from a resident’s phone. Her family quoted the girl as saying that an unknown man dragged her out of the house and threatened to kill her if she raised the alarm.

“Her earrings were missing… She said the culprit spoke Malayalam,” a family member told the media. Based on her complaint, the police registered a case and launched a manhunt to trace the accused.

(With PTI inputs)