Thiruvananthapuram: Authorities will hand over the two-year-old girl, who was abducted from Chacka here a couple of weeks ago, to the migrant couple from Bihar after the DNA test confirmed she was their daughter. The police submitted a report to the Child Welfare Committee stating the child could be handed over to the couple. Her DNA sample was sent for testing on February 22.

Police nabbed the accused in the case yesterday. Hassankutty alias Kabir (50), of Ayirur in Varkala, was arrested from Chinnakada in Kollam. According to City Commissioner C H Nagaraju, Kabir was in jail for 3.5 years in a POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences) case and several theft cases. He was released on January 22 after acquiring bail in the POCSO case of harassing an 11-year-old girl.

There are eight cases against Kabir, as per reports. In an earlier incident in Kollam, the accused was beaten up by people in the area after he tried to kidnap a migrant child. He confessed to the police that he tried to molest the two-year-old in Chacka.

The child went missing on February 19 while she was sleeping with her parents and three siblings on the roadside in Chacka. After over 19 hours of searching, she was found abandoned in an obsolete drain, around six feet deep, 500 metres from where she was kidnapped. The child's parents reached Kerala to sell honey. A DNA test was conducted to verify her parentage. Police had intervened and shifted the child to a shelter run by the Child Welfare Committee.