Kochi: The autopsy report of the five-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Aluva last weekend confirmed she was subjected to brutal sexual assault before accused Asfaq Alam strangled her to death using her t-shirt.

A medical board of forensic experts was tasked to probe the violation, as savage wounds, rarely found in majority of rape-murder cases, were detected on the child’s body. The board is examining the autopsy report, and videos, in detail.

The investigation team will submit before the POCSO Court, Ernakulam, the postmortem report and the findings of the medical board on August 4. 

The team will obtain the court’s nod and seek the help of the child’s mother in identifying the t-shirt used by the accused to suffocate her to death.

The police have also initiated efforts to find out why the accused murdered the child after sexually assaulting her. 

According to initial leads, the accused did the heinous act alone and no other person was involved.

They suspect that Alam unsuccessfully attempted to kidnap the child a day before the crime was committed.

The scope of the probe has been expanded to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after it was found that the accused had committed similar crimes earlier.

The body of the child was found in a trash heap on July 29 after she went missing from the first floor of a building at Garage Junction, near Aluva town, where her family was residing. She was one of the children of a migrant couple from Bihar. The accused is also from the same state.