CM Pinarayi Vijayan admits lapses in police probe

Thiruvananthapuram/Kollam: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan admitted in the Assembly on Thursday that there were lapses in the police  investigation into the alleged sexual harassment and suicide of a ten-year-old girl in Kundara.   The sub-inspector  responsible  has been  suspended.  The suicide note allegedly written by the girl was  sent for  forensic examination to  prove  its veracity, he said in reply to a submission made by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala.  

Mr Chennithala  said  the  incident was similar to the one at Walayar where two young sisters had committed suicide after being allegedly sexually harassed. He also said that the police did not act even after the victim's father submitted repeated complaints at the police station. The Congress has called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Kundara on Friday in protest against the police inaction on the issue. The  probe team has taken into custody the girl's mother and questioned her. It is suspected that there is a bid to  fabricate a case  against the girl's father, who has been living separately after some quarrels with the mother.  

A suicide note  found near the body of the girl,  who was found hanging from the window of her house at  Nanthirikkal,  Kundara, on January 15,   allegedly stated that she was ending her life  as she “lacked peace”  in her home. The police will examine the  doctor who conducted the autopsy to find whether she  was molested before her death. The police have taken into custody nine persons, including the grandfather of the child, along with a few neighbours,  who were questioned at the East Kallada police station. The autopsy report showed  that  the girl underwent brutal torture and sustained  over 20 injuries all over her body, and that it was not an odd case of suicide.

The police, who  had failed to take the case seriously for the last two months, have  now constituted a special inquiry team under Kollam rural SP S. Surendran. The police had at first  filed a case for unnatural death. South zone IG Manoj Abraham has  suspended  Kundara SI Rajeesh Kumar citing dereliction of duty. Circle  Inspector R. Shabu was suspended earlier. A protest march conducted by Youth Congress activists to the Kundara police station demanding justice to the victim  turned violent  on Thursday. The police blocked the march near the station, after which the activists pelted stones at them.