Rape and murder of girl in Aluva: parents demand capital punishment for accused just hours before sentencing

Parents of 5-year-old migrant child, raped and murdered, call for capital punishment for accusedAsafaq Alam. Judge K. Soman to pronounce sentence at 11 a.m. Evidence, witnesses, CCTV footage, DNA, dress of victim, POCSO case in Delhi helped ensure maximum punishment

Parents of the five-year-old migrant child, who was raped and murdered in Aluva early this year, have called for capital punishment for the accused.

Their plea comes just hours before the Additional district sessions court for trying atrocities against women and children in Ernakulam in set to pronounce the sentence against the accused Asafaq Alam, 29, of Bihar here on Tuesday.

The father of the victim, also from Bihar, said that he had full faith in the Kerala government. “He should be hanged. He had no right to live. If let outside, another child will have to face the same fate as my daughter. People like him will not change. He is a demon in the form of a human,” he said.

Expressing the same sentiments, the mother of the victim said that the accused has no right to live after taking her daughter’s life.

Judge K. Soman is set to pronounce the sentence at 11 a.m. The judge in a verdict passed last week had found the accused guilty of 16 charges under the IPC, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. He was slapped with 16 charges, including those of murder, abduction, rape, and unnatural sex.

It was on July 28 afternoon that the child went missing from her family’s rented apartment in Choornikkara panchayat near Aluva town. The accused Asafaq Alam, 29, of Bihar was nabbed by the police late in the evening. The child’s body was found dumped covered in waste in a shrubby, abandoned spot in Aluva market the next morning. It soon emerged that she was sexually assaulted and murdered.

A special investigation team (SIT) was formed by the District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vivek Kumar to probe the case on a war footing. A board marking the days since the launch of the investigation was also put up at the police headquarters in Aluva.