Villupuram (Tamil Nadu), Oct 23 The Crime Branch-CID police intensified the search for a seven-year-old girl who remains untraced 11 days after going missing from her home near Gingee, triggering severe political backlash and public outrage.
Marking their second day since taking over the investigation from the Villupuram district police, the CB-CID team on Friday mapped the area around the girl’s house in Nadupattu village near Gingee and questioned her parents and other relatives.
The class II student went missing in the early hours of October 12, hours after celebrating her seventh birthday. According to the police, the child was last seen sleeping with her parents – agriculture labourers and grandmother the previous night after celebrating her birthday on October 11.
A neighbour later reported hearing a child’s voice crying out for her mother three times around 3 am on the morning of her mysterious disappearance.
The initial investigation by the Sathiyamangalam police, who registered the case, yielded no results. The police deployed over 100 police personnel, drones, sniffer dogs, and forensic experts to search local wells, water bodies, agricultural fields, and forest areas, but found no concrete leads.
Investigators are currently analysing 600 phone call logs, local cell tower records from October 11 and 12, and CCTV footage across Alampoondi, Thiruvalai, and Nadupattu to trace a suspected abduction gang.
During the course of preliminary investigation, the local police focused on a few key suspects and individuals, tracking digital footprints that led to an astrologer from Thanjavur who had camped in the village for a fortnight near the missing girl’s residence in Alampoondi.
Police became suspicious of him as he abruptly hung up the call and switched off his mobile phone when police attempted to call him for questioning.
As political parties and local people started protesting, accusing the police of a lackadaisical approach, following the unsuccessful search and prolonged delay in tracing the girl, the state DGP on October 22 transferred the case to the CB-CID.
Investigators suspect that this could be a well-planned abduction by a gang that travelled through neighbouring villages.
The incident sparked massive public outrage and political protests, and the opposition DMK staged a road blockade to draw the government’s attention to the case and demand that the girl be traced soon. The PMK and other parties too have demanded swift action in the case.
(PTI News)
