Malappuram: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case related to the murder of a 15-year-old girl at Karuvarakundu on Friday, said that the crime was allegedly triggered by the accused boyfriend's suspicion that the girl was involved in another relationship.

According to the district police chief R Viswanath, the preliminary investigation revealed that the boy committed the crime alone and did not receive any external help. He has confessed to rape and murder, police said.

It was on Friday morning that the girl, a class 9 student of Government Higher Secondary School Karuvarakundu, was found dead near the railway track in Pullippadam near Karuvarakundu.

The accused, a plus two student of the same school, was arrested for alleged murder and has been shifted to government observation home for boys in Vellimadukunnu, Kozhikode. He has been charged for murder, wrongful confinement and relevant sections of POCSO Act pertaining to aggravated sexual assault.

According to the police, the boy has confessed to the crime during the interrogation, and he has revealed that the girl was strangled to death after being raped. But, police are yet to confirm the rape as they are yet to receive the postmortem examination report.

"We took the boy into custody on Friday evening itself. During the interrogation, the boy revealed that he took the girl to a vacant plot in Pullipalam and raped her before strangling her to death. Following, police took him to the spot and found the body. We have confirmed that the girl contacted her mother around 6 pm and she made that last call from the boy's phone," said the police chief.

"The boy and girl got into a verbal altercation over their relationship. We will examine the detailed call records of the boy and other data of his phone to establish the motive behind the murder," police said. Meanwhile, the body of the girl was handed over to the family after the autopsy at Government Medical College, Manjeri on Saturday afternoon.