Kollam: The police on Monday arrested a temple priest for the death of a 12-year-old girl who was found hanging at her house at Kulasekharapuram, Karunagappally here, on March 28. The girl’s mother, who was allegedly the lover of the priest, was also arrested. Her father is an Army man. The accused R. Renju, 29, of Puthumangalathu veedu, Alumkadavu, Karunagappally, is the priest of a nearby temple. He had made the girl a victim of unnatural sex, according to the autopsy at the Thiruvananthapuram MCH. Renju was charged under sections of POCSO and rape, and the girl’s mother under sections of POCSO, abetment of suicide and concealing the sexual assault on the girl, said Karunagapally police.

On the previous night of her death, the girl had gone to her room on the pretext of studying and locked the door from inside. As she did not come out of the room the next morning, her mother and neighbours broke open the door and found her hanging from the grill of the windows. She was a seventh standard student of Kulasekharapuram Higher Secondary School. A forensic team from Kollam conducted an inquest in the presence of Kollam city police commissioner Satheesh Bino.