Coimbatore; Man held for kid’s death five months ago

COIMBATORE: Five months after a three-year-old girl of a Jharkhand couple was found dead, police on Monday arrested a 28-year-old man working in a coir factory in Pollachi. He was identified as A Santhu Mohammad (28) of Ambarampalayam near Anaimalai, working as supervisor in a factory at Singanallur, The parents of the deceased was working in the factory and residing the residential quarters. 

According to police, Rupali (3), daughter of Silema Mahto and Saraswathidevi from Sarango in Jharkhand, complained of pain and swelling in abdomen on January 6. Saraswathidevi applied pain relief ointment and then the couple went to work leaving their three children at home. 

In the afternoon, the supervisor alerted the couple that the child was found unconscious in their house. Immediately the couple and the supervisor took the child to a private hospital at Ambarampalayam and then she was rushed to Pollachi Government hospital, where she was declared dead. 

Anaimalai police registered a case.  On June 17, police received the postmortem report and final opinion report. It revealed that the girl died of blunt injury in her abdomen. Meanwhile, police accessed the CCTV footage in the quarters and found out that the child fell on the ground after being hit by the suspect accidentally.

“Four days before the death, the child allegedly refused to eat and Mohammad  who was passing by hit the child to warn her. The child fell on a stone and suffered injury in the abdomen. The supervisor did not cause it with an intention and even after the incident nobody knows the cause of the injury. But the supervisor recalled the incident during inquiry,” said a police officer. Following the investigation, police altered the case with section 304 (ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC and arrested the Mohammad.