Two women among three of family arrested from Tamil Nadu in Kerala girl abduction case

The three family members were arrested by a special team of Kerala Police in connection with the abduction of a 6-year-old girl from Kollam on Nov 27.

Kollam: Kerala Police has arrested three of a family including two women from Tamil Nadu's Thenkasi in connection with the kidnapping of a six-year-old girl in Kerala's Kollam on Nov 27, sources said. Sources said that a special team of Kerala Police arrested the main accused KR Padmakumar (52), his wife and daughter, hailing from Chathannoor in Kollam district at a checkpoint in Puliyarai area of Tamil Nadu's Thenkasi on Friday afternoon.

The main accused Padmakumar is believed to have kidnapped the six-year-old girl near her residence in Oyoor in Kollam district of Kerala on Nov 27. However, the role by Padmakumar's wife and daughter arrested by the Kerala Police in the case was not immediately established. The girl was found abandoned the very next day at the Asramam Maidan area of Kollam.

The arrest of the three family members was made on the basis of a sketch made on the statemen of the victim girl. The girl was kidnapped by four car-borne kidnappers while she was returning home from her tuition classes along with her brother on the evening of Nov 27. According to the victim's brother, three men and a woman kidnapped his sister and took her along.

Police said that the kidnapper later made a ransom call to the mother of the girl asking for Rs 5 lakh ransom for the safe release of her daughter. An official said that based on the interrogation of the arrested accused, it seems that the main accused and the father of the kidnapped girl were embroiled in a financial dispute which triggered the girl's kidnapping.

The arrested family members are being interrogated under the leadership of ADGP MR Ajith Kumar. Further details into the case are awaited.