Kozhikode: The Class 8 girl and her cousin brother who were traced in Bengaluru a week after going missing from their residence, were brought back to the district on Tuesday night. A team of officials from Thamarassery police station reached Bengaluru to take the duo back to the state. 

On Wednesday morning, the police produced the girl before the District Child Welfare Committee as a missing case was registered under the Juvenile Justice Act. Meanwhile, police booked her 24-year-old cousin's brother under the POCSO act and various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) after questioning the girl. In the complaint to the police, the girl’s family had alleged that the youth abducted the girl to wreak vengeance on them for not withdrawing a POCSO case filed against him around five months back.

On Tuesday, Thamarassery DYSP confirmed that the police tracked the girl and her relative to Bengaluru and that the Karnataka police took them into custody upon their instructions. Later, a team from Thamarassery police headed to Bengaluru to take the duo back to Kozhikode.

The girl reportedly went missing from her residence at Puthuppadi in Thamarassery on March 11. In the complaint to the police, the girl’s parents alleged that she went missing after leaving for her annual examination at school around 9 am on March 11. Further investigation revealed that the Class 8 girl was accompanied by her relative, who was earlier booked for sexually abusing her.  

On March 14, police had obtained CCTV visuals from a lodge in Thrissur confirming that the youth had fled from Kozhikode with the girl. 

On March 14, police obtained crucial information that the girl had reached a lodge in Thrissur. In the CCTV visuals shared by a lodge owner in Thrissur, the girl was seen along with her cousin brother. However, the duo left the place before police reached the spot, as the lodge owner had denied them a room because they did not carry any ID proof.

Amid the search for the girl, her family has come up with allegations against her cousin. They alleged that the man, who is the son of the girl’s paternal aunt, abducted the girl to wreak vengeance against the family for not withdrawing a POCSO case against him. As per the case registered nearly five months back, the girl who was on her way to school was allegedly taken to a lodge and sexually abused by this youth.

He had spent 70 days in jail after a local court remanded him in the case. Though his family approached the girl's parents to withdraw the case, they rejected their request.