7-year-old may have been raped, murdered

 The Class I student of a government school who resided at Pannimadai near Thudiyalur had gone to a neighbourhood shop to buy betel leaves for her grandmother around 6 pm on Monday.

“When the girl did not return home, her grandmother went and inquired with the shopkeeper, who told her the victim had left long back with the betel leaves. The family members then assumed the girl had gone to a friend’s house to play,” police said.

The family members lodged a missing person’s complaint with Thadagam police around 8 pm.  

The girl’s body was found wrapped in a t-shirt and dumped in a narrow alley near the girl’s residence around 5.30 am on Tuesday. She was immediately rushed to a private hospital, where doctors said she had died several hours earlier.

Her body was sent for post-mortem to Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital. After preliminary inquiries, police suspect she was raped and strangulated to death.

Police are examining images CCTV footage in the area.