Kanhangad: Two brothers, aged 32 and 30 years, were arrested for allegedly sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl in Kasaragod's Chittarikkal police station limits.

The girl is the daughter of the elder brother's live-in partner, said Chittarikkal Station House Officer - Inspector Ranjith Raveendran, who made the two arrests. The elder brother is also facing charges of murdering his father, said police.

Both the girl's mother and her live-in partner are married and separated from their spouses, said police.

The crime came to light when neighbours called in the legal service volunteer after reportedly seeing the ill-treatment of the girl. Though the girl was unwell, the man had refused to take her to hospital.

The legal service volunteer took the girl to the hospital and arranged for a counsellor to talk to her. She shared her ordeal in the house with the counsellor, who alerted the police.

Police arrested the two brothers and charged them under the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate remanded the siblings in custody. The girl has been moved to a government-run institution for child abuse survivors, police said.