The Nilgiris police have launched an investigation into the murder of a minor girl, whose body was found in thorny bushes near the Anger Board junction in Udhagamandalam on Monday (April 24) evening.
The police said that the body of the girl, aged 14, had visible signs of sexual assault, which would be confirmed after a post-mortem examination on Tuesday.
According to the police, the girl hailed from a hamlet near Sandynallah. The girl’s mother heard the news around 6.30 p.m. She told the police that her daughter had left for school near Ooty on Monday morning and did not return.
A preliminary investigation by the police revealed that a person, Rajnesh Kuttan (25) of a hamlet near Shooting Mattam, had taken the girl in a car. The police suspect that he murdered the girl after sexually assaulting her.
The police have registered a case based on a complaint lodged by the girl’s mother under different sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A special team of police Is on the lookout for Kuttan.
A senior police officer said that the post-mortem examination will be held on Tuesday. The nature of sexual assault suspected will be known after the post-mortem, the officer said.
Elderly man held for sexual assault
In another incident, the Ketti police arrested a 68-year-old man on charges of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl. The police said that M. Saminathan, a resident of a village near Old Aruvankadu, was arrested for the crime.
According to the police, the parents of the child had left her with a relative, an elderly woman, when they went out on Monday. The accused sexually assaulted the girl when she went to his house to drink water while playing in the neighbourhood, the police said.
Saminathan was produced before a court and he was remanded in judicial custody.
