Missing child Sana Fathima’s body recovered from river

Kasaragod, Aug 10: The body of a 4-year-old girl who was feared to have been swept away in a swollen stream adjacent to her residence at the eastern border township of Panathur last Thursday was recovered from a nearby river on Wednesday.

The body of Sana Fathima was found stuck on a submerged branch of a tree around 2 p.m. at Pavithramkayam, over a km from her Bapumkayam residence by a person engaged in the search efforts.

The water level in the river had receded owing to a respite in rainfall over the past two days, a senior police official at the Rajapuram station said.

Sana Fathima is the daughter of Ibrahim, an autorickshwaw driver.

The anganwadi student went missing as she was playing close to the swollen stream around 4 p.m. on the ill-fated day.

Local people, the police, Fire and Rescue Services personnel, and divers from the coastal police braved inclement weather and launched a massive search operation across the nearly 5-km stretch of the flooded river, a tributary of the Chandragiri river.

With the suspense over the girl’s mysterious disappearance refusing to die down, a disaster management team used special gadgets on Wednesday to search along the banks of the Chandragiri at various localities.

SHRC directive

The State Child Rights Protection Commission on Monday, while registering a suo motu case, directed the District Police Chief and child protection officials to file a report within 15 days on the status of the search operations.

The rights panel’s decision came amid media reports about the possibility of the girl being frisked away by nomadic groups, following which the police alerted police stations across Kerala and Karnataka.

The body of the girl was shifted to Pariyaram Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.