The alleged murder of the four-year-old was a vengeful act by the mother against what she perceived as an attempt by her husband and family to isolate and distance her from the children, she reportedly told the Ernakulam Rural police during her custodial interrogation.
The Chengamanad police were given custody of the woman for five days on Thursday (May 22, 2025). However, she claimed not to know about the alleged sexual abuse of her daughter for over a year. Reportedly, she reacted to the revelation with the same indifference that has marked her behaviour ever since she was taken into custody on Monday (May 19, 2025) night.
The Puthencruz police had on Thursday arrested a close relative of her husband for allegedly sexually abusing her child. The police are likely to get his custody on Saturday (May 24, 2025).
On Thursday, the woman was taken for evidence collection to Moozhikulam bridge along the Chalakudy River, where she allegedly threw the child into the water. The police also recorded the statements of autorickshaw drivers and crew of the bus she took on Monday when the child had gone missing. The police will return her to judicial custody on Monday.
The murder case, which appeared to be an open-and-shut case, took a dramatic turn when the Puthencruz police arrested the 36-year-old, one of the two brothers of the deceased child’s father, after the post-mortem report suggested her body bore marks of sexual abuse. He lived in a separate house on the same compound as the child’s family.
The accused was booked for charges, including rape, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act Sections 3 (penetrative sexual assault) and Section 5 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault). According to police sources, the child was being sexually abused at least for the past one year. The post-mortem report also suggested that she was abused very recently, probably on the morning of the day she was allegedly murdered.
Published – May 23, 2025 07:46 pm IST
