Thiruvananthapuram: Police on Sunday briefed about the person nabbed in connection with the sensational Petta's child abduction case. According to police, the accused is Hassan Kutty alias Kabir, a wanderer. 

The city police commissioner, C H Nagaraju during a media brief revealed that Hassan Kutty was behind the abduction. The commissioner added that there are already eight cases (including POCSO) against him.

"We questioned him and, prima facie, it is confirmed that he was the one who abducted the child. We have arrested him," Nagaraju told the media.

As per the preliminary investigation, he abducted the child and took her to a nearby railway track.

"He tried to molest her, but when she cried he covered her mouth and she fell unconscious. He has claimed that he left her there thinking she was dead," the senior police officer said.

The toddler was found by the police in a deep drainage canal hours after she went missing.

The police zeroed in on Hassan Kutty after examining hundreds of CCTV visuals.

Nagaraju said the accused is a history-sheeter with eight cases, including a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) case.

"He came out of jail on January 12 in a POCSO case. In 2022, he offered a toffee and molested a girl child, for which he was arrested and jailed," the city police commissioner said.

Police said Hassan Kutty, who is a resident of Kollam, is a wanderer and has cases including for house break-ins, thefts at temples and vehicle thefts, apart from the POCSO case.

"He is a POCSO habitual offender. It seems there are other POCSO matters in which cases were not registered," Nagaraju said.

He was tapped with the help of jail officials and a huge team led by DCP Nithin Raj. More than 100 CCTV footage were verified to reach this criminal, he added. Reportedly the accused was just released from jail on January 12 and is a Malayali and not a family member of the girl who went missing.

The girl is the daughter of Bihar natives. The girl went missing on February 18 around 1 AM. The couple who were living on the roadside along with their children woke up to find out that their daughter was missing. Locals rushed to the spot as the duo panicked and started crying aloud in agony. Following this, the incident was immediately reported at the police station. 19 hours later, the girl was found abandoned in a drainage near BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Ltd on Airport Road.

The police team who probed the case scrutinised the credentials of the parents, who are known to be vagabonds. The move comes as the parents do not have birth certificates or Aadhar cards for the missing child and her siblings. Police also probed whether her family members had any involvement in the incident. The new development comes at this juncture.

With PTI inputs