Aluva murder: Accused was involved in sexual offence against child in Delhi in 2018
In a startling revelation, police, who are probing the gruesome murder of a 5-year-old girl in Aluva, have found that the accused, Asafak Alam, was arrested and jailed in Delhi for molesting a 10-year-old girl in 2018.
Police discovered this after analysing the fingerprints of the accused. Ernakulam Rural Police Chief Vivek Kumar said Alam, 28, was accused in a case registered at Gazipur Police Station in New Delhi in 2018 of molesting a 10-year-old girl.
"It came to our knowledge when the fingerprints of Alam matched with the fingerprint database of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The case was registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). He was arrested in the case and remained in jail for one month before being released on bail. He later absconded. The case is currently in the trial stage," Kumar said.
Ernakulam Rural Police will inform Delhi Police about the arrest of the Alam. A report will be sent to Delhi Police headquarters soon. With this, the Delhi Police will also move the concerned court to cancel the bail granted to Alam in the POCSO case registered there and likely arrest the accused again. Police suspect that after being released on bail, Alam might have travelled to other states before coming to Kerala a couple of years ago. Similarly, he was involved in minor theft incidents, but no case was registered due to the absence of a complaint.
With his history of involvement in sexual offences against children, police have decided to collect more information about the accused from his native place in Bihar. Earlier, the police had contacted the Bihar police to check whether any criminal case had been registered against Alam. "We will send a team to New Delhi to get more information about the case against the accused person. We will also collect information from his native place, for which a team will be sent to Bihar also," Aluva DySP A Prasad said.
Vivek said that all material objects, including CCTV footage and other scientific evidence, are being collected. The evidence will be given to the concerned authorities for detailed analysis. "All this evidence will be presented before the court. The investigation is going in the right direction. We will try to file the charge sheet in the case as soon as possible," Vivek said.
On July 28, Alam abducted the child living at Choornikara and took her to a garbage-littered place behind Aluva market, where she was raped and murdered. Even though the police managed to arrest the accused on the same day, he initially tried to mislead them. The body of the victim was recovered on July 29 after the accused confessed to the crime.
