'Asfaq brought child to Aluva market at 3 pm, claimed she was his daughter'

Aluva: An eyewitness on Saturday claimed that he saw the five-year-old girl who was brutally killed, with accused Asfaq Aslam at the Aluva market on Friday.

"I saw the child with Asfaq in the market area at around 3.15 pm on Friday. He wore a blue t-shirt and saffron dhothi," Tajudeen, a daily wager at the Aluva market said on Saturday.

When Tajudeen enquired why Asfaq was taking the child to a waste dumpyard, the latter replied that the child was his daughter.

"He said he was in the area to drink," Tajudeen said while adding that two others joined him later.

The labourer added that he did not investigate the matter further as it looked like a regular drinking affair. According to residents of the area, the waste dump-yard near Aluva market is commonly used by miscreants and alcoholics after 3 pm for drinking.

"The man and the child spoke the same language. Asfaq picked the child up when I asked him questions," Tajudeen said.

Tajudeen intimated the police about the matter after he saw the child's photograph on television.

The police on Friday found the body of the five-year-old girl almost 20 hours after she went missing on Saturday. 

The child's body was found in an abandoned sack at the Aluva market near Periyar river. A forensic examination was underway subsequently.

She was abducted from a building at Thayikkattukkara here on Friday. Alam from Bihar, the accused who was arrested on Friday, had told the police that he handed over the child to another person with the help of a friend.  

Alam allegedly abducted the child from the vicinity of the railway gate at Thaikkattukara on Friday afternoon. CCTV footage showed Alam crossing the highway with the child and boarding a bus to Thrissur.

The child's family has been residing at a plaza in Mukkam for the last four years. The residential complex houses guest workers; the accused had moved in there two days ago.