Representative image of drowning.
Credit: iStock Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: The police uncovered that a three-year old girl who died after allegedly being drowned by her mother in a river near Kochi on Monday, was sexually assaulted.
The police took the girl's uncle into custody and is currently interrogating him.
Kochi rural district police chief M Hemalatha told reporters that evidence is being collected and examined.
The girl's mother was already in custody on charges of drowning her child in the river when they were returning back from Anganwadi.
The post-mortem examination revealed that the girl was sexually assaulted multiple times.
Sources said that the girl might have been suffering from sexual abuse for more than a year. The police are examining whether the sexual assault had any connection with the murder. The girl's mother is also being questioned in detail.
The victim and suspect were staying in separate houses in the same compound.