Thrissur,
Kerala, April 6: A day before the assembly elections, Kerala witnessed the
brutal murder of a five-year-old girl, allegedly assaulted by her 23-year-old
stepfather. The incident occurred on April 5 in Kumbazha, in the district of
Pathanamthitta in the southern state of Kerala.
The
child’s mother works as a housemaid and both the mother and step-father are
Tamilians, originally from Rajapalayam in Tamil Nadu. The mother had left home
for work as usual on Monday morning, and on returning home at around 2:30 pm,
found her daughter lying unresponsive, with the step-father lying nearby, in a
drunken state.
On
being questioned, the step-father started abusing the mother, at which point
she sought the help of a neighbour to take the child to the hospital. However,
the child was declared dead on arrival by the doctors at the Pathanamthitta
General Hospital. Hospital authorities contacted the police, and investigation
is the case has been initiated.
District Police Chief R Nishanthini
said that the accused, Alex is in custody. “He tried to escape, but was caught.
He has been produced to court and is being questioned.” The autopsy report reveals that the child has also
been sexually assaulted while there are multiple wounds all over her body,
old and new. The cause of death is said to be trauma to the chest. Police also
revealed that the accused is a substance addict, and hence questioning will
take more time.
The child’s mother was living in a rented house at Kumbazha with the accused as well as her mother. She had two children from her first marriage. The second child is living with her former husband. The mother started living with Alex a few months ago, in various rented houses. Neighbours say that Alex has assaulted the child earlier as well. The incident is yet another in a spate of similar ones where step-fathers have sexually assaulted and/or killed minors.