Chennai: A pall of gloom descended in a tsunami resettlement in the North Chennai after a 3-year-old girl was reportedly murdered after being sexually assaulted and her neighbour, who is suspected of having committed the offence, is being interrogated.

The gruesome incident came to light after the corpse, with its mouth gagged by rags, was found in a garbage yard in Tiruvottiyur, on Sunday afternoon. The child was playing with her 5-year-old brother while their mother was down with fever and their father was at work on Saturday afternoon.


The child's mother who woke up at 3 pm realised her daughter was missing and the family lodged a complaint with Ernavur police. Efforts to locate the child did not fructify. Finally, conservancy workers who were unloading garbage spotted the child and alerted Tiruvottiyur police. The child's identity was established as that of the missing girl reported in Ernavur Police limits, with the child's parents identifying her.

The body was subsequently moved to Government Stanley hospital and the presence of a male body fluid was confirmed in preliminary autopsy findings.
The needle of suspicion fell on the child's neighbour who reportedly lured the girl to his house after buying her ice cream.

Upset over the incident, the locals laid siege to Ernavur police station and resorted to a flash road roko demanding stringent action against the culprit.
If alive, the girl would have made it to kindergarten later this year in the school where her brother is studying. It may be recalled a 7-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and murdered by her neighbour Tashvanth, in Moulivakkam recently.