Thrissur: The preliminary autopsy report of the two tribal children, who were found dead near the Shastampoovam tribal colony on March 9, has revealed that they did not die on the same day. The body of eight-year-old Arun Kumar was found to be five days old, while the body of 16-year-old Saji Kuttan was three days old.
The report also stated that bruises on the bodies suggest that a fatal fall from the tree could be the reason for their death. There were no other injuries that would point to an animal attack, the report said.
Police's preliminary investigation had also pointed to the fatal fall from a tetrameles tree when they climbed up to collect honey. The cops also recovered a towel and a chopping knife from a tree branch, believed to be used by Arun.
“It is assumed that Arun died within a short time after he fell from the tree. Saji, a mentally weak child, must have been shaken by the accident and stayed back on the tree a couple of days more. It is believed that he also fell from the tree out of starvation. There are marks that he crawled from under the same tree about 100 metres away, possibly looking for water or food. They were fast friends and regularly used to go to the forests to collect honey together,” said a member of the search teams. Local people had formed seven such teams to find the children who went missing on March 2.
Arun's father Kadar Veettil Rajasekharan left his family long back and his mother is mentally unstable. He studied till Class 2 at the Government UP School Vellikulangara and this year, after his elder sister got married, he has not gone to the school. Saji's mother killed herself when he was three years old and his father Kadar Veettil Kuttan aka Subran died in a wild elephant attack in 2021.
Both the children used to go to the forest frequently and stay at relatives’ houses outside the colony. So, for the first two days, the people from their colony did not recognise that they had gone missing.
The bodies of the children were buried on Sunday afternoon. Revenue minister K Rajan, senior district administration and police officers, and people’s representatives paid their last respects.
