A white board placed at the Ernakulam Rural police district headquarters in Aluva serves as a reminder of the speed with which the police wrapped up the investigation and submitted the 645-page chargesheet on the bloodcurdling crime in which a five-year-old migrant girl from Bihar was abducted, raped, and murdered.
When the additional district sessions court for trying atrocities against women and children in Ernakulam awarded capital punishment to the convict, Asafak Alam, on Tuesday, the board bore the number ‘109’ suggesting the number of days it took for the convict to be sentenced since the rural police had registered a first information report, initially for missing, on July 28.
District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vivek Kumar had ordered mounting of the board at the police headquarters when the body of the missing girl was found dumped covered in waste in a shrubby, abandoned spot in the Aluva market the next morning. The number on the board was changed every single day since then. It was meant to keep the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to investigate the case on their toes and to remind them of the need for the quick completion of the probe followed by the submission of chargesheet every day.
Going by the record time in which the SIT wrapped up the probe and submitted the chargesheet, the board seemed to have served its purpose.
Besides, the rural police also created a video of almost 4.30-minute duration on the gruesome crime detailing the timeline since it was reported to the day the convict was awarded capital punishment. The video has since been posted on the Facebook page of the rural police.
The sentencing of the convict also proved to be a moment of fulfillment for the team of 30 police officials who had tirelessly worked on the case. The 30-member police team was led by DySP A. Prasad and inspector M.M. Manjudas. The team comprised sub inspectors Sreelal S.S., P.T. Lijymol, Arun G.S., Aneesh M., Bibin T.B, Naushad M.A., and Sivaprasad.
