Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police have brought the Rajasthani girl who was allegedly abducted from Ochira and the main accused in the case to the state. Travelling by road from Mumbai, the police team led by sub-inspectors Sivakumar and Sabu reached Ochira police station by 2 pm on Thursday.

The police had earlier on Wednesday traced the 15-year-old girl and the main accused Muhammed Roshan at a slum area in Panvel, Mumbai. Both of them were presented before a Mumbai court before being brought to Kerala.

Meanwhile, Roshan claimed that he had not abducted the girl. “In fact, we were in love for a long time. Moreover, the girl is 18 years old,” he said.

It was on March 18 that a gang led by Roshan had kidnapped the girl after assaulting her parents. However, the police said that girl and Roshan, who is the son of a CPI local leader, were close.

The Ochira police had earlier arrested three accused in the case registered over attacking a family of roadside vendors belonging to Rajasthan and abducting their 15-year-old daughter. The three were identified as habitual offender Pyari (19) belonging to Mozhoothara, Payikkuzhi; Ananthu (20) of Kuttitharayil, Payikkuzhi and Thekethil Bivin (18) of Thandasseril, Vavvakavu.

The kidnapping points to the insecure lives of low-income migrants in Kerala. Many of them raise their girls in the guise of boys to keep them away from unwanted attention while they go out in search of work. The girls are forced to crop their hair and try to imitate the ways of boys to escape the eyes of possible tormentors, who target the vulnerable group with little local support.

Most of the times, the migrants are scared into submission and warned against going to the police. A migrant family who had rented a house near the Ochira temple had a devastating experience when their 3-year-old daughter was molested by a neighbour eight months ago. When they lodged a complaint with the police, the locals reacted by evicting them from their house.