Kochi: Nearly two years after he was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a five-year-old girl in Aluva, Ashfaq Alam, a 29-year-old migrant labourer from Bihar, has filed an appeal before the Kerala High Court challenging his conviction and sentence. The appeal, filed on October 3, questions the fairness of the trial, the reliability of the evidence, and the conduct of the investigation that led to his conviction. 

The case was registered at Aluva East police station in July 2023. According to the prosecution, on July 28, 2023, Alam, who was living near the victim’s family, lured the child with mango juice, took her on a KSRTC bus to the Aluva market, and led her to a deserted waste-dumping area. There, he allegedly gave her liquor, sexually assaulted her, strangled her using her own T-shirt, and concealed her body under garbage.

The Additional District and Sessions Court in Ernakulam found him guilty under multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and related laws. The court imposed several life terms and a death sentence under Section 302 of the IPC, declaring that the crime fell within the “rarest of rare” category. 

In his appeal, Alam argues that the trial was unfair, rushed, and marred by serious procedural lapses. He claimed the entire process — from charge to judgement — was completed in about 110 days, leaving him little time to prepare his defence. He also accused the probe team of intimidating his family members in Bihar and coercing them not to assist with his legal defence. Because Alam does not understand Malayalam, the language of the court, the appeal highlights that the translator provided during the proceedings was allegedly biased. It cited a media interview in which she is reported to have said the accused “should be hanged,” which, the defence contends, compromised his right to a fair hearing. 

The appeal further alleged ineffective legal assistance during the trial, asserting that the court-appointed counsel failed to cross-examine key witnesses or challenge major contradictions in the prosecution’s case. The appeal pointed to several ‘inconsistencies’ in the evidence. While the prosecution claimed that Alam offered the girl mango juice, none was detected in her stomach during the post-mortem. Ethyl alcohol, however, was found in her body, and its origin was never investigated, the petition said. A strand of hair recovered from the body was deemed unsuitable for DNA profiling, depriving investigators of potentially decisive evidence or the involvement of another person. 

The appeal also questioned the reliability of CCTV footage presented in court, arguing that the police never seized the original Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or Network Video Recorder (NVR) devices and relied instead on selected clips copied to a pen drive. Some CCTV owners admitted that the systems were reset or had their timestamps altered, raising concerns of tampering. The appeal claimed that footage from several cameras in the busy Aluva market area was never collected. This highlighted discrepancies in witness statements — one describing the victim’s dress as a “black frock,” though the recovered clothes were a blue T-shirt and trousers, and another claiming to have seen Alam boarding a bus with the victim from a distance that made such observation implausible, the appeal said. 

The appeal contested the prosecution’s claim that Alam led the police to the victim’s body, saying that local residents discovered it and that photos from the recovery site did not show him present. It argued that the investigation ignored other possible suspects, including individuals known to frequent the area for drinking and scrap collection. Medical records noted a week-old wound on Alam’s foot at the time of arrest, but no fresh injuries, which, the appeal argued, contradicted the theory of a violent struggle. 

Alam’s petition, which raises more than sixty grounds, requested the High Court to set aside both his conviction and death sentence, or alternatively to order a fresh trial. The appeal, filed after a delay of 660 days, explained that as a migrant worker in custody with limited means, he faced significant hurdles in arranging legal help and communicating with his family. The case continues to draw widespread public attention due to the brutality of the crime and the gravity of the punishment.