Two missing tribal children from Sasthampoovam colony found dead

The relatives lodged a complaint on Friday about the missing children. Though the children were missing from March 2, families thought they must have gone to their relatives’ houses

Two children who have been reported missing from Sasthampoovam Kadar tribal colony since March 2 were found dead on Saturday afternoon.

The deceased were Saji Kuttan, 16, son of Kuttan, and Arun Kumar, 8, son of Rajasekharan of Kadar tribal colony. The bodies were found near the colony during a joint search operation by the police and the Forest department. The bodies were shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital, Thrissur, for post-mortem examination.

The police are yet to find the cause of the deaths and are awaiting the post-mortem report. It is suspected that the children who climbed a tree in the forest to collect honey had fallen down. The body of Arun was found in a decomposed state, while the body of Saji was found around 200 m away.

The relatives had lodged a complaint on Friday about the missing children. Though the children were missing from March 2, their families had thought they must have gone to their relatives’ houses. A complaint was lodged when they realised that the children had not reached there.

Following this, the police and Forest department officials started searching in the forest on Saturday, forming seven groups. The bodies of the children were found during the search.

The Kadar tribes in Sasthampoovam colony eke out a living by collecting forest resources. Most of the families residing here make temporary huts in the forest during summer to collect forest resources. So, there were only a few people in their colony.

Saji, who lost his parents a few years ago, was being taken care of by his brothers. As his brothers had gone to the forest, the colony residents came to know that Saji was missing only a few days later.

Arun, whose father had died a few years ago, lived with his mentally challenged mother. As his mother rarely went out, people did not realise that Arun was missing. Arun was a student of Vellikulangara UP School.