THIRUVANNAMALAI: A 15-year-old girl barely managed to ward off a rape bid by an agriculture worker, but was killed on Thursday evening in Mazhuvampattu village in Tnandarampattu taluk of Thiruvannamalai district.
Police said the victim and her father, who is a blind, went to the paddy field to fetch coconut and mango leaves and some sticks to decorate a ‘pandal’ for the marriage of the victim’s elder brother, fixed for June 9.
Venugopal, the victim’s father, had reportedly asked his daughter to bring all the materials to the house and was waiting for her in a far off place. Meanwhile, a farm hand, Pandarinathan (36), of the same village who helped the duo gather the materials, took the girl to a secluded place and sought to misbehave with the girl.
Even as the girl raised an alarm, the agriculture worker choked her to death and fled the place, police said. When Venugopal’s wife Murugayee did not find their daughter return home, they informed the police who mounted a search. They found the body of the girl lying on a paddy field. The police, after recovering the body, sent it for post-mortem in Thiruvannamalai general hospital.
The post-mortem report said the girl was strangulated to death, but was not raped. Police nabbed Pandarinathan who is married and has two children. On Friday Pandarinathan was produced before the judicial magistrate who remanded him to 15 days police custody. Further investigations are on.
Meanwhile, the CPI (M)’s district unit condemned the attempted sexual assault on the poor girl and her subsequent murder.
