ith agencies such as the GVMC, the Fire Department, the police, and the Navy engaged in the search of six-year-old Aditi giving up hopes of finding her in the canal into which she was believed to have slipped or the sea, conspiracy theories are now coming into the forefront. (Father of the girl wanted the name ‘Aditi’ to be used and not the one used so far.)
And the most vital key to the investigation is 13-year-old J. Tanvi, a student of Std. VIII, who is the only eyewitness.
For any investigation, a lot depends on the eyewitness account. And, according to the police, Tanvi, who was with Aditi on that fateful day, was the only one who had seen the six-year-old slip into the storm water drain.
Tanvi’s younger brother Meher was also with them.
Tanvi and Meher are children of J. Ravi Prakash, a close friend of C. Srinivas, father of Aditi. And it is in their car all the children would go to the tuition centre daily. The police had already taken the account of Tanvi earlier, and called on her and Meher again on Wednesday to delve deeper. Going by Tanvi’s account, Aditi slipped into the drain and was swept away in the flash flood following sudden cloudburst on Thursday last at about 6 p.m. near Dr. V.S. Krishna Government College at HB Colony in Visakhapatnam.
If that were to be true, the chances of Aditi’s survival were minimal.
But then, where is the body?
“We have launched the most extensive search operation and there is no trace of the girl,” said DCP C.M. Trivikram Varma, who is heading the investigation.
“There appear to be many loose ends and we are trying to reconstruct the sequence of events bit by bit,” he told The Hindu . The CCTV footage obtained from the ATM counter located opposite the tuition centre clearly shows Aditi going into the tuition centre at about 4 p.m. But the footage of Aditi leaving the centre could not be captured due to power cut in the area.
Driver of the car Gurunadh Rao stated in his account that the girl was standing behind him as he was helping Meher sit in the front and was alerted of the incident by Tanvi.
But why did he park the car in a side lane beside the storm water drain, especially when the road was fully flooded?
“He could have easily parked outside the tuition centre gate,” said an officer involved in the investigation.
Keeping the kidnap angle open, the officer said, “If the girl was kidnapped, then there would have been a ransom call by now. Moreover, the father of the girl stated that he had no rivals. He does not even suspect anybody. And that is puzzling us, as there is no motive,” he added.
“If there is foul play, then it has been meticulously planned and there is more to it. For that reason, we are now questioning the parents, relatives, and friends and, if required, we will go beyond the city,” the DCP added.
There appears to be many loose ends and we are trying to reconstruct the sequence
of events
