Partially charred body of schoolgirl found in Tiruchi

The partially charred body of a 14-year-old girl was found at Adhavathurpalayam on the outskirts of the city on Monday, sparking tension.

The victim, a Class IX student, had left home in the afternoon to attend to nature’s call and did not return.

Police suspect the girl could have been murdered but said only the post-mortem report could establish the cause of death. The girl’s family members searched for her after she failed to return home and found her in a burnt state behind a saw mill in the evening. As news about the death spread, locals rushed to the spot, triggering tension in the area.

According to police sources, the upper part of the girl’s body was found in a burnt state. Angry villagers resorted to a protest and damaged the windshield of the ambulance that came to shift the body to the mortuary of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi range, Z. Annie Vijaya and Superintendent of Police, Tiruchi, Ziaul Haque rushed to the crime scene and conducted inquiries.

Ms. Vijaya said it was a death under suspicious circumstances, and added that scientific evidence had to be collected.

Special teams, led by a woman Deputy Superintendent of Police, were probing the case from various angles, Ms. Vijaya said after inspecting the crime scene.

The girl’s father Periyasamy is running a hardware shop at Ariyavar.

This is the third murder of minor girls reported in recent months in the Tiruchi Range comprising Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Ariyalur, Karur and Perambalur districts.

Two cases were reported in the neighbouring Pudukottai district including the murder of a minor, allegedly by her father and few others, in a suspected case of human sacrifice near Gandharavakottai in May.

A few days ago, a seven-year-old girl was raped and murdered at Embal village.