Kerala child rape-murder accused also named in 2018 POCSO case in Delhi: Police

The 29-year-old accused in the murder and alleged sexual assault of a five-year-old child in Kerala’s Ernakulam district last week also faces charges in a 2018 POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act case from Delhi, police said.

Ernakulam Rural SP Vivek Kumar told reporters on Tuesday, “A case was registered against him in 2018 at the Ghazipur police station in Delhi under sections 12 of the POCSO Act and 354, 354 A of the IPC. He was an undertrial prisoner in the case, spent a month in jail and later got out on bail. We got the information about that case when we matched fingerprints in the NCRB database. We are investigating if there are more cases registered against him.”

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Asafak Alam, a native of Bihar, was arrested last week from a suburb near Aluva in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old daughter of migrant workers, also from Bihar.

He was charged with several counts of aggravated sexual abuse, kidnapping, destruction of evidence, and murder.

According to police, the accused kidnapped the minor student from her home and sexually assaulted her before strangling to death and dumping her body under heaps of waste near a market.

The senior police officer said that the test identification parade of the accused by eyewitnesses was completed on Tuesday and an application seeking his custody for questioning will be filed before the POCSO court.

“Investigation is going in the right direction and we will file the chargesheet as soon as possible,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, health minister Veena George and Industries Minister P Rajeeve paid a visit to the deceased minor girl’s home and assured them of speedy justice.

The state government has announced a compensation of ₹1 lakh for the family.