Aluva child rape and murder case: Court to pronounce verdict tomorrow

Kochi: The Ernakulam POCSO court will pronounce the verdict in the brutal rape and murder case of a five-year-old girl in Aluva on Saturday (Nov 4). The court completed the trial in 26 days after registering the case. The accused Ashfaq Alam, a native of Bihar, has been booked with 16 charges including murder and rape that can also carry a maximum of the death penalty.

Also read: Aluva murder case: Police file charge sheet against accused in POCSO court after 35 days

The appalling incident that sent shockwaves across the state took place on July 28. The lifeless body of the five-year-old girl was tragically discovered in a garbage yard, almost a day after she was abducted from her family's rented house in Aluva, near Kochi. 

The incident took place while her parents were away at work. The victim was the daughter of Ramdhar Tiwari, hailing from Bishambharpur in Bihar's Pashchim Champaran district. She was just a Class 1 student at a local school, and her family resided in a rented apartment within the Choornikara Panchayat.
A special team was formed to investigate the brutal act and the chargesheet was filed within 30 days. The trial, which started on October 4, was completed in 26 days and the verdict is being pronounced swiftly. 

The heart-wrenching discovery of the 5-year-old's lifeless body was made by labourers cleaning the Aluva market premises, who came across a sack in an abandoned location. Swiftly informing the police, they uncovered the little girl's body inside the sack, adding a grim resolution to the devastating ordeal.

Ashfaq Alam is a POCSO case accused in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur. The Ernakulam rural police informed that he was booked for attempting to molest a 10-year-old in 2018. Alam was arrested in the POCSO case and was jailed for a month in Ghazipur. He was later released on bail and was absconding.

• Aluva murder case