Palakkad: Two people belonging to a beggar gang have been arrested over the murder of a girl whose body was recovered from a bag found in a bush near the Palakkad Junction railway station. The child was killed during a rape attempt, the arrested have told the police.
Suresh, 37, from Padiyanallur, Thiruvallur, and Femina Pichaikani, 21, from Mallipattanam, Thanjavur, are the arrested. Suresh and an accomplice assaulted the four-year-old girl.
Suresh is an accused in another murder case. Search for three more gang members are on, the police said. Femina, who is pregnant, has a 11-month-old child.
The girl died during sexual assault when one of the rapists stopped her from crying out. Her dress was used to strangle to make sure she was dead, the accused told the police.
The child was abducted from Kulithalai, around 37 km from Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu. Her body was found in the bag on January 15.
The gang of two men and three women had reached Palakkad with the kid on January 2. They were at Olavakkode railway station premises for a week and stayed under the bridge at Thanavu.
Suresh and his friend raped the child near the tracks on the night of January 12. On realising that the girl died while trying to stifle her, the duo wrapped her body in a sack and left it in the bush in a bag before leaving the next day.
Sections under the POCSO Act as well as IPC sections on abduction, rape and murder have been registered against the accused. Their police custody will be sought for investigation later.
The police could not locate the family of the girl even after the gang gave the location where she was abducted from. No missing report has been reportedly filed in police stations nearby.
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