The State capital heaved a sigh of relief on Monday evening after the missing two-year-old daughter of a nomadic couple was located over 19 hours after she was allegedly abducted while sleeping under a wayside tent near Pettah the previous night.
Mary, the missing girl, who is the youngest of the four children of Bihar natives Amardeep and Rubeena Devi, was reported to have gone missing around 1 a.m. The family has been residing in an isolated place close to a railway track near the All Saints’ College.
Bringing an end to a hectic search that involved multiple police teams that fanned out across the district and beyond, the toddler was rescued from a drain near a railway track behind the Brahmos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd. unit near the Kochuveli railway station around 7.15 p.m. The place is around a kilometre away from where the family has been staying.
The child was located by a police team that inspected the area following an alert. Notably, the area had been thoroughly checked by the police as well as the dog squad shortly after the news of the alleged abduction had come to light. Drone cameras had also been deployed in the area.
Health satisfactory
Visibly panic-stricken, Mary’s health was found to have been satisfactory at the SAT Hospital where the child has been admitted.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) P. Nidhinraj, who led the investigation, said all angles are being explored to unravel the alleged abduction case and identify the perpetrators.
The nomadic family, which is believed to have briefly stayed in Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the recent past, has been visiting Thiruvananthapuram every year for about two months to sell honey, the police said.
The couple also has three sons, one of whom has claimed to have seen an unidentified person abducting his sister on a yellow scooter. Besides the couple and their four children, the nomadic group comprised six others, including the missing girl’s grandparents.
Earlier, District Police Chief (Thiruvananthapuram City) C.H. Nagaraju said a number of CCTV footage have been recovered from the area and along the possible escape routes for examination. He said the chances of the child getting spirited away on a train appeared remote since there were no train services around the time of the alleged incident.
The investigation gained some impetus after the sleuths received leads of a child matching the description of the missing toddler being spotted in Chakka and Eenchakkal while being taken by two men on a yellow scooter around the time of the suspected abduction.
The probe had been expanded far as Kollam, while the Tamil Nadu police were also alerted to anticipate a possible attempt by the suspect gang to flee to Kanyakumari.
General Education Minister V. Sivankutty appreciated the Kerala Police and said the force had proved its investigative prowess yet again.
