KOLLAM: An all-party meeting convened in Yeroor here has unanimously decided to welcome the family of the 7-year-old girl raped and murdered by a youth in Kulathupuzha last week, following which neighbours ousted them alleging immoral conduct. The meeting led by panchayat president Omana Murali has constituted a delegation to converse with the family inviting them back to their hometown. The meeting also denied allegations that the family faced a ban by the residents. The meeting demanded swift action against the perpetrator who killed the girl brutally.
The residents ostracised the family accusing them of being aware of torturing the girl. The mother of the girl had earlier alleged that the public denied them permission to cremate the body at home and that they exiled them accusing “immoral” behaviour. The family had sought refuge in their relatives’ house in Palode. The body of Sreelakshmi, 7, was found abandoned in a rubber plantation in Kulathupuzha on Thursday last week and the police arrested Rajesh, 24, of Chandanakkavu in Kulathupuzha, who lives with the girl’s aunt. The daughter of Suji of Suji Vilasam at Punchirimukk, she went missing after she had left for school on the previous day. The police found the accused abducted her and launched an intensive search with the help of residents. They later captured him from Kulathupuzha and confessed to raping and strangling her to death.
