It was just another routine Tuesday morning for Nithyarajanai Satheeskumar as she dressed the elder of her two children for school, never knowing that it would be the last time she would be carrying out this responsibility.
The weather was holding good that fateful day as eight-year-old Satheeskumar Thriniksha clasping her grandfather’s hand headed towards the front gate from where the two would proceed to the local Kottamunnai junior mixed school.
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| The grieving mother. |
On reaching the front gate the child abruptly stopped and turned back, to wave to her mother who was standing on the front porch. It would be the last wave between the mother and child, for unknown to either of them a group of kidnappers had a chilling plan.
The grandfather for his part had left the girl in the school premises, and her presence for the day was even marked in the class room register. The events that occurred later are still shrouded in mystery.
The grandfather found the girl missing when he went to the school in the afternoon to collect her, prompting a search involving the girl’s mother and a group of volunteers. The search stretched from the local hospital to play grounds and even the homes of relatives and friends. As the day stretched into night there was still no trace of the child and with everyone fearing the worst, a complaint was finally lodged at the local police station. It was several hours later when the kidnappers broke silence and made a call to the panic-stricken home.
We will return your child in exchange for three million rupees in hard cash, the household was told, with a warning to keep the police out, the mother told The Sunday Times yesterday.
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| Police at the well where the body was found. |
The girl’s mother had time till Friday evening to come up with the money. This led to frantic efforts to raise the ransom money. At the end Nithiyaranjani was able to raise the money by pawning whatever possessions she had but there was an eerie silence from the kidnappers.
The position remained the same until on Friday when a caller informed the girl’s home that a highly decomposed body had been discovered in an abandoned well and it may well be that of the missing child.
The search for Satheeskumar Thriniksha had ended, for at the bottom of the well was her limp corpse. A medical examination later revealed that she had been strangled to death.
According to police the abductors had demanded the ransom from the victim’s mother despite killing the child shortly after the abduction. “They were demanding a ransom in exchange for a corpse,” they said.
Among the three suspects one was a close neighbour and known to the family. The suspects are also known to have had links with certain para-military groups in the area.
The suspects were later shot dead by police after they attempted to escape from police custody.
For Nityaranjanai it was a double tragedy. Two years ago her husband was frog-marched out of the same home by a group of gunmen and has never been heard of since, and is presumed dead. |
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