Thodupuzha: The police have submitted the chargesheet in the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl at Vandiperiyar in Kerala’s Idukki district.
The 300-page chargesheet, which includes statements of 250 people, was submitted at the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court at Muttom. There are 65 witnesses.
The charge sheet was submitted within 78 days of the arrest of the accused Arjun, 22. The accused continues to be lodged at the Muttom jail.
The child was found dead at the workers’ quarters (layam) of an estate on June 30. It was a brutal murder, according to the police charge sheet. The girl was sexually assaulted and hanged to death, the police say in the charge-sheet while citing scientific evidence.
The accused has been slapped with various charges, including murder, child abuse, destruction of evidence and unnatural sexual offence.
The child had been sexually abused since the age of three, as per the police findings. The witnesses’ statements in the charge sheet substantiate the police finding that the child was abused after being given toffees and food items.
On the day the child was murdered, the accused had barged into the house and the child fell unconscious while being abused, the police said. Believing the child to be dead, he hanged her body in the room using a rope and escaped through the window.
The post-mortem report that the child had been a victim of frequent abuse and the scientific test result that the hair found on the child's body was that of the accused would strengthen the case.
