Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Jun 10 The police on Wednesday filed a comprehensive 819-page chargesheet at a special local court against two men in connection with the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of a 10-year-old girl in nearby Sulur, completing the investigation within a swift 18 days of the crime.
The chargesheet, submitted before the Special Court for POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act cases, names K Karthi (35) as the prime accused and his accomplice R Mohan (31), both residents of Pallapalayam near Sulur.
According to police sources, it was possible to file the chargesheet in little over two weeks because of the coordinated efforts by the different departments.
"Usually, it takes nearly two months to get all medical and forensic reports that we should attach with the chargesheet. This time, we made it in the quickest possible time because of our coordinated efforts," a senior police officer told PTI, adding that in total 215 documents had been attached to the chargesheet.
The victim was allegedly abducted on the evening of May 21 from her neighbourhood in Pallapalayam after being lured with chocolates. The accused took her on a two-wheeler to a secluded thicket on private land near the Kannampalayam tank bund, where she was assaulted and murdered. Her body was recovered by the police the following morning.
The fast-tracked investigation relied heavily on scientific evidence, a reconstructed crime scene timeline, and crucial eyewitness testimonies, police said.
During a Test Identification Parade (TIP) conducted by a judicial magistrate at the Coimbatore Central Prison on June 2, two key eyewitnesses identified Karthi. One witness had spotted the prime accused luring the child away from her neighbourhood, while the second had seen him transporting the victim along the 2.5 km route toward the tank bund.
Police also told PTI that nearly 100 witnesses relevant to the case were interrogated before filing the chargesheet.
The police had taken Karthi into a three-day custody starting June 3, during which investigators mapped out the crime scene and recreated the sequence of events leading to the murder.
With the submission of the voluminous chargesheet within three weeks of the incident, the prosecution is expected to move for an expedited trial in the special court, sources added.
