Rape and murder of girl in Aluva: parents demand capital punishment for accused just hours before sentencing

Asafaq Alam, the accused in the alleged brutal abuse and murder of a migrant girl in Aluva, being brought to the Additional District and Sessions Court for trail of atrocities and sexual violence against women and children. File
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Parents of the five-year-old migrant child, who was raped and murdered in Aluva early this year, have called for capital punishment for the accused.

Their plea comes just hours before the Additional district sessions court for trying atrocities against women and children in Ernakulam in set to pronounce the sentence against the accused Asafaq Alam, 29, of Bihar here on Tuesday.

The father of the victim, also from Bihar, said that he had full faith in the Kerala government. “He should be hanged. He had no right to live. If let outside, another child will have to face the same fate as my daughter. People like him will not change. He is a demon in the form of a human,” he said.

Expressing the same sentiments, the mother of the victim said that the accused has no right to live after taking her daughter’s life.

Judge K. Soman is set to pronounce the sentence at 11 a.m. The judge in a verdict passed last week had found the accused guilty of 16 charges under the IPC, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. He was slapped with 16 charges, including those of murder, abduction, rape, and unnatural sex.

It was on July 28 afternoon that the child went missing from her family’s rented apartment in Choornikkara panchayat near Aluva town. The accused Asafaq Alam, 29, of Bihar was nabbed by the police late in the evening. The child’s body was found dumped covered in waste in a shrubby, abandoned spot in Aluva market the next morning. It soon emerged that she was sexually assaulted and murdered.

A special investigation team (SIT) was formed by the District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vivek Kumar to probe the case on a war footing. A board marking the days since the launch of the investigation was also put up at the police headquarters in Aluva.

The team filed a 645-page chargesheet within 33 days of the incident. They banked on circumstantial evidence, cyber and forensic evidence, expert opinions of doctors, and medical reports for drawing up the chargesheet. The chargesheet had the statements of over 40 witnesses, 95 documents, and detailed references to material objects such as footwear and cloth.

The investigation took the SIT to Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal for collecting critical information about the accused and which found mention in the chargesheet. It emerged that the accused had a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against him in Delhi.

Efforts were made to ensure the maximum punishment for the accused. Witnesses who saw the accused taking the victim with him, CCTV footage, DNA of the accused collected from the body and cloth of the victim, and the dress of the victim recovered from the crime scene also proved critical in the case.

The 30-member police team was led by DySP A. Prasad and inspector M.M. Manjudas.