Kannur: The search for a missing four-month-old girl ended in double heartbreak — the infant’s lifeless body was found in a well, and her 12-year-old cousin, herself orphaned and clinging to her uncle and aunt, was arrested for the murder.
According to police, the child was thrown into the common well of their tenements at Parakkal in Kannur’s Pappinisseri during the night between Monday and Tuesday.
The deceased was the daughter of scrap collectors from Tamil Nadu’s Perambalur district, living in a modest rented tenement among other migrant families, sharing a common compound, well, and toilet.
The 12-year-old’s father, elder brother to the baby’s father, had epilepsy and died a few months ago, said Valapattanam Station House Officer B Karthik. Soon after, her mother walked away, leaving the Class 7 student orphaned in her village in Perambalur.
Last November, her father’s younger brother and his wife — married just a year — welcomed a daughter of their own. Three weeks after the birth, as they returned to Kannur, they brought their orphaned niece with them, said the officer.
“She had no parents to return to. When we asked her, she said she threw the baby into the well to ensure she wouldn’t lose her uncle and aunt’s love and support,” Karthik told Onmanorama.
Initially, the girl told police she had stepped out to use the washroom late Monday night and saw the baby sleeping beside her parents. When she returned, the infant was gone.
Alarmed, the baby’s parents woke up other migrant workers living in the same compound and began a frantic search. Around midnight, one of the neighbours spotted the child’s body floating in a well, barely 10 metres behind their home.
The police were called in. The infant’s parents doubted their niece’s account, as the room had been latched from the inside. The officer said her statements, too, showed inconsistencies. It was only a matter of time before the child confessed.
Karthik said the girl will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and placed under government care. “She is a child. Please protect her privacy,” Karthik said.
