KANYAKUMARI: Following the arrest of a 27-year-old woman from Kadiyapattinam near Colachel in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu on Saturday for abducting her neighbour’s four-year-old son, murdering him and concealing the body in the cupboard of their house, the police has also arrested her husband for helping her hide the body in their house.
Autopsy performed on the boy’s body on Sunday has revealed that the victim Johan was smothered and strangulated to death before his body was stuffed in the cupboard.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of Colachel sub division P Thanga Raman told TOI that inquiry with the prime accused Fathima (27) who murdered the boy revealed that her husband was also an accomplice for the later part of the crime. Her husband Sarobin (31), a fisherman, had gone to the sea when his wife murdered the little boy. He was unaware of Fathima’s grave crime till he came home. But even after he came to know about the murder, he helped her hide the body without informing the police or villagers.
Sarobin and Fathima have two childre -- a four-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son. Fathima was alone at home when she took Johan while he was playing in front of her house as the children had gone out to play. The couple’s daughter had seen her mother take the boy to their house but was unaware of the heinous crime that took place. Fathima was booked under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC.
She was also booked under other sections for abduction, wrongful restraint and theft of jewellery. Sarobin was booked under section 201. Though the villagers ransacked their house for the murder of the fellow villager, they turned compassionate to the helpless and innocent children of the accused couple. Following the arrest of the couple, the villagers along with the police admitted their two children to an orphanage for temporary care. The police said that the couple will be remanded on Sunday.
Meanwhile, an autopsy on the boy’s body was performed at the Kanyakumari medical college hospital on Sunday afternoon. The police said that the body will be handed over to the family for the final rites in the evening on the arrival of Johan’s father Richard (35), who works as a fisherman in the Middle East.
