Tuticorin: Tamil Nadu Police said the main accused and his friend have been arrested
An eight-year-old girl paid with her life for asking her neighbour to switch on the television, the Tamil Nadu Police said. The girl lived with her single mother, a daily wage worker, in Tuticorin district.
The Class 3 student used to visit her neighbour to watch TV, the police said. During one such visit on Wednesday, the child asked the neighbour to switch on the TV while he was arguing over a matter with his father.
The man then strangled the child in a fit of rage, the police said, adding he then put the girl inside a plastic drum and covered the lid. An hour later, he went to a bridge near his house and dumped the body into a channel.
An eyewitness who saw the body fall into the water informed the police immediately, after which the body was retrieved from the water.
The man and his friend who helped him carry the drum to the bridge have been arrested, the police said.
A police officer said they are waiting for the autopsy report to see if it was also a sexual assault case. "We've filed a case of murder besides invoking sections under POCSO," Tuticorin senior police officer S Jayakumar told NDTV, referring to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.