Two years back, an eight-year-old girl was found dead under mysterious circumstances with a rope around her neck in the bedroom. This incident took place on 9 September(2019) at Gundumala, near Munnar in the Idukki district. Initially, it was declared that the girl might have strangled herself while playing. There was a twist when her post-mortem reports pointed at the possibility of murder and mentioned that the child had been a victim of repeated sexual violence. The culprits in the case are yet to be apprehended, and the victim is yet to receive justice.
Since the incident occurred when the girl was at home with only her poor eye-sighted grandmother around, and there were no complaints from her relatives or zero pressure on the cops, the investigation leads to the floppiness.On the 19 of the previous month, a Kerala-based Tamil girl was allegedly sexually abused by an unidentified gang of three men at Palani. She had arrived in the temple town with her husband for a pilgrimage from Kannur (in Kerala). When the couple filed a complaint against this, they mentioned that the woman was forcefully dragged to a lodge and was physically assaulted by the men while her husband went to buy food.
The Tamil Nadu police had arranged for a Special Investigation Team to probe this case as the lodge owner and the lodge residents made statements contradicting the complaint. They had also checked the CCTV visuals and certain medical records but failed to find any evidence to support the complaint. A forensic test was also conducted in the lodge room where the woman was assaulted.
Recently, another girl who was six years old was sexually abused and murdered at Vandiperiyar. The police succeeded in catching the accused. This somehow made the Gundumala case a topic of discussion once again.Hence, the police have again resumed their investigation into the matter. Recently, as a part of the investigation, four people, including her mother, had to attend a lie-detection test (using a polygraph). So far, three reports have arrived, with the fourth one on its way. The police confirm that this might bring a bit clearer to the investigation.