On Monday, the state's Health Minister Veena George announced ₹1 lakh financial aid to the deceased child’s family.
After the murder of a five-year-old girl in Aluva in the city of Kochi in Kerala, which sent shockwaves across the state, the government is attracting severe criticism from various quarters on the alleged improper handling of the police force.
The Congress-led UDF in the opposition and the BJP attacked the ruling Left government for the purported lack of proper policing in the state.
The growing criticism pushed the LDF government to take action.
Dodging a flurry of brickbats, the state government announced it was considering bringing a law to make the registration of migrant workers mandatory.
On Monday, 31 July, the state’s Health Minister Veena George announced financial aid of ₹1 lakh to the deceased child’s family.
“The Department of Women and Child Development has sanctioned ₹1 lakh as an immediate relief to the family of the child killed in Aluva. The amount was sanctioned from the Aaswasanidhi relief fund, a financial aid given to the immediate family members of women and children who have been sexually assaulted,” the minister stated in her Facebook post.
On Monday, the Excise Department inspected houses and camps of non-native labourers, including the residence of the accused, in the area where the incident occurred.
An excise official told TV channels that the agency had identified 50 spots in Aluva where non-native workers resided, and inspections were being carried out at all those places simultaneously.
He said that this was a continuous process and was being carried out in various parts of the Ernakulam district of the state for some time.
State Labour Minister V Sivankutty said in a government release that migrant workers were currently regulated according to provisions of the Inter-State Migrant Workers Act of 1979. The necessary system for the registration of migrants would be prepared by the Labour Department.
Sivankutty said that over 5 lakh migrant workers were registered under the Awas Health Insurance Scheme introduced for them, and that the Labour Department would take steps to identify all unregistered workers and get them on board as well.
Besides that, an Athithi (guest) app would be launched next month to register migrant workers and it will contain comprehensive information about them.
Extensive campaigns would be conducted in connection with the app, and Labour Department officials would visit workers’ camps and workplaces to register them on the app, the minister said.
On Friday, the five-year-old girl was abducted, raped, and killed allegedly by a migrant worker from Bihar who lived in the same building. The child’s family hails from the same state.
Her body was found dumped in a sack in a marshy area behind a local market in the nearby Aluva area on Saturday.
The girl was sexually assaulted and strangulated to death, a senior police officer told South First. She had been missing since 3 pm on Friday, and the police were informed at 7 pm. The initial FIR mentioned it as a case of kidnap.
“Yes, the police have invoked the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act as penetrative sexual assault was involved. The murder was by strangulation,” the officer said in response to a specific question by South First.
Section 3 of the POCSO Act deals with penetrative sexual assault.
The police examined CCTV footage from the area where the child was last seen. She was seen with Alam, who was staying in a room on the first floor of the building where the girl’s family — also from Bihar— lived near Garage Junction.
The accused was arrested on Friday, but could not be interrogated as he was in an inebriated state, the police said.
He was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days on Sunday and the police said they would be seeking his custody for seven days when the matter was heard by a special POCSO court on Monday.
After the incident, the Congress came down heavily on the state police and alleged lapses on their part in tracing the child.
However, Kerala Police chief Shaik Darvesh Saheb rejected the charges and said there were no lapses on behalf of the investigators.
The Kerala Police on Saturday posted an apology to the family of the victim on all its social media handles, acknowledging that their efforts to reunite the child with her parents proved unsuccessful.
This was criticised by Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, who on Sunday said that the police were not being paid to apologise on social media.
The announcement of financial aid by Veena George came as the Congress and the BJP alleged that the state government was not using the police to ensure law and order and the safety of the people but for other matters.
Congress MP K Muraleedharan said the police were busier trying to rectify “microphone problems”.
This was an apparent dig at the recent registration of a case over the malfunctioning of a microphone that interrupted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s speech for a few seconds during a programme organised to commemorate the life of late Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy.
Speaking about the crime against the minor girl, Muraleedharan said, “It was a heart-wrenching incident and an insult to our state. What is the difference now between Kerala and a state like Uttar Pradesh? Is there any security here? The chief minister needs to take stringent measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.”
The Congress MP also pointed out that it was the local residents of the area who found the body of the child the day after the incident and informed the police. “The child could have been saved,” he claimed.
He also said that the government needed to view the issue seriously and take steps to find out how many migrant workers were there in the state, and how many of them had criminal backgrounds.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a key ally of the Congress, alleged that the state government was using the police against those protesting for their rights.
IUML state general secretary PMA Salam said that the accused in the present case was allegedly addicted to intoxicants and could not be questioned after his arrest as he was in an inebriated condition.
“The use of intoxicants and drugs is widespread in Kerala and that is because of the government. Bars that were closed during the Oommen Chandy government have been reopened,” he claimed.
The BJP spoke along similar lines, with Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan lashing out at the police and the state government for blowing their own trumpet by announcing the arrest of the accused.
“If the police had an iota of shame, they should not toot their horn by saying it caught the accused/culprit after the brutal rape and strangulation death of the victim,” he said.
“Why could the police not prevent the incident which took place during the daytime? Moreover, the culprit was able to mislead the police during questioning,” the Union minister added.
Firing a salvo at the police, he also said that the police were not being paid to apologise on social media.
The Union minister also said that who were responsible for the alleged “failure on the part of the police” in the minor girl’s case needed to be ascertained.
The BJP’s Kerala unit president K Surendran said there should be a system in place to identify any criminal elements among migrant workers and alleged that some of them used drugs.
“There is no monitoring system in place. People are asking for a policing system based on the Uttar Pradesh model. Policing in Kerala is very weak. Proper investigation is not being carried out,” he claimed.
State Public Works Department Minister PA Mohamed Riyas responded that no one had till date said that law and order was poor in Kerala. The state was at the forefront of policing, he said.
A state minister and the LDF convenor visited the family of the five-year-old girl, amid criticism from various quarters over the absence of Kerala government representatives at the child’s funeral.
State Health Minister Veena George visited the victim’s family late on Sunday night following criticism from various quarters, including the general public, that no one from the government’s side turned up at the funeral or when the body was kept for public display at a nearby school.
On Monday morning, LDF convenor EP Jayarajan visited the family. Speaking to reporters at Aluva, Jayarajan said there was no failure on the part of the police as they quickly caught the culprit after getting information that the child was missing.
He also urged that no one should politicise such a heartbreaking incident.
The victim’s father too did not have any complaint against the state government and the police.
“I have no complaints against the state government and police. People are saying there are more (people) involved in the incident. I want all of them to be caught as soon as possible,” he said.
He also demanded the death penalty for the accused Asfaq Alam.
(With PTI inputs)
May 10, 2024
May 10, 2024
May 10, 2024
May 10, 2024
May 10, 2024
May 10, 2024
