VILLUPURAM: As the mystery continues over the seven-yearold girl’s disappearance in Gingee, the CB-CID has decided to expand the search to the surrounding forest area and intensify questioning of her father and a history sheeter.

Hemalatha, also known as Hemavathi, went missing in the early hours of October 12, while her parents, Bhavani and Vadivelu, were sleeping. The local police took up the case initially, but with no leads even after 10 days, the case was moved to the CB-CID.

With no clues emerging even after 20 days, the CB-CID is planning to conduct searches in the forest areas of Alampoondi and its surroundings in coordination with the Forest department to look for evidence relating to the girl’s disappearance.

The teams have questioned Bhavani, Vadivelu, the girl’s grandmother Shanthi and elder sister Vijayalakshmi separately. They also examined school attendance records and questioned teachers. Meanwhile, a history-sheeter and a godman also reportedly fled.

Vadivelu’s relatives were also questioned following information that the girl was in Bengaluru, but in vain. Manimegalai (75), who lives alone on a field about 200 metres from the girl’s house, had told police that someone had knocked on her door twice around 3 am on October 12.

The CBCID had planned to question Vadivelu over the past two days, but postponed it as he was unwell. He was summoned to a temporary investigation centre in the village on Tuesday and questioned. A history sheeter from Bharathanthangal village, who had already been questioned, was summoned again and subjected to further questioning.

With the ground-level search yielding no results, the CB-CID has begun examining digital evidence. Police have obtained data from three mobile phone towers in the Alampoondi area that were active around midnight on the day of the disappearance. More than 600 mobile phone numbers active at the time are being analysed, and suspicious numbers are being monitored.