A nine-year old girl, Salva, found dead on Wednesday, is suspected to have been raped and killed by the father of her friend, at Pookkottupadam near Nilambur, police said.
The suspect, Palakkaparambil Nassar, a head load worker, was admitted to the Kozhikode medical college hospital in a serious condition after the local people thrashed him severely after the girl’s body was found. The police arrested and sent him to the district hospital before shifting him to the medical college.
The body of the girl was found in the bathroom of Nassar on Wednesday night. Her relatives had begun a search for her after she failed to reach the ‘Madrassa School’ in the morning. “We suspect the girl was strangled to death after a sexual assault,” said assistant sub inspector K.C. Surendran of the Nilambur police station.
The police is awaiting the forensic and postmortem report which will provide better evidence regarding the circumstances of the death, he said.
Police suspects the girl, a fifth standard student of government LP School at Kavalamukkatta, might have been lured by Nassar, or she might have gone to his house to meet his daughter, also a student of the ‘Madrassa School’. The wife and children of Nassar were not in the house as they had gone to their ancestral home.
Salva is the youngest daughter of Murikkumkadan Sakkir and Suhra. Salva has two sisters and a brother.