Kochi: The Special Investigation Team probing the sexual assault and murder of a five-year-old girl in Aluva claimed that Asfaq Alam from Bihar committed the crime. Manorama News reported that the probe team conducted evidence collection at the crime scene near Aluva market and recovered the child's dress and sandals on Thursday.
The probe team took the accused for evidence collection after two-day long interrogation.
Aluva Rural SP Vivek Kumar told media that evidence collected so far points the finger at Asfaq as the sole accused.
Earlier, it was alleged that two more people arrived at the spot where Asfaq took the child and committed the crime.
The girl was raped and murdered on July 28 allegedly by a migrant worker, also from Bihar, who was residing in the same building as the victim.
The post-mortem report revealed that the girl was brutally raped and tortured by the accused.
The child suffered severe injuries on her head and genitals the autopsy stated. As per the autopsy report, the accused strangulated the child to death with her cloth.
The accused -- Asfaq Alam -- was arrested the same day, but the girl's body was found dumped in a sack in a marshy area behind a local market in Aluva the following day. He was sent to police custody for 10 days on August 1.
According to the police, Alam was arrested in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) case in Delhi five years ago and had been jailed for a month before being released on bail.
He was arrested by Ghazipur police (east Delhi) in 2018 for attempting to sexually molest a 10-year-old girl there, Kerala police had said on August 1.