Vadivelu and Bhavani, a couple from Alampundi village in Gingee, Villupuram district, have two daughters, Vijayalakshmi and Hemalatha. While the elder daughter was staying in Chennai and studying diploma nursing, Hemalatha was studying in the second standard at a government school in the same area.
Last October 11 was little Hemalatha’s birthday. So Hemalatha, who had gone to the houses of nearby friends, happily invited them with a smile, saying, “It’s my birthday today, I’m going to cut a cake, come on.”
Accordingly, Hemalatha celebrated her birthday that day with friends and relatives, finished dinner, and went to sleep inside the house with her mother.

The next day, on the 12th, when mother Bhavani woke up in the morning and found that her daughter, who had been sleeping beside her, was missing, she was confused. Although children in the village would normally go to neighboring houses, the parents searched around the house calling out the little girl’s name, since it was unlikely she had gone out so early in the morning.
After that, they inquired at the neighboring houses the girl usually visited and began searching the entire village. But no information was found about the missing Hemavathi. Since the girl, who had happily celebrated her birthday on the first day, went missing the very next day, the village was left stunned.
Following that, Sathyamangalam police registered a case based on the complaint filed by Vadivel and began searching for the girl. However, as there was no information about the girl on the first day, the second day, and the following days as well, the Viluppuram district police were put on alert.
Searches were conducted by forming 8 special teams comprising around 200 police personnel under the leadership of four DSPs. Similarly, with the help of fishermen from the Kottakuppam area and drones, investigations were carried out in water bodies, including wells, surrounding those villages, to see whether the girl might have gotten trapped there. With the help of sniffer dogs, every house in the village was searched.

In addition, the police questioned the girl’s parents, relatives, and others, as well as all the history-sheeted criminals in the surrounding area.
Following that, they also released mobile phone numbers, asking anyone with information about the girl to share it. However, no information about the girl was found. It was in this situation that the DMK, which announced a protest condemning the police for showing negligence in the girl’s case, pressed for the case to be transferred to the CBCID unit.
Following that, on the night of October 21, Tamil Nadu DGP Mahesh Kumar Agarwal ordered the case to be transferred to the CBCID.
The very next day, CBCID SP Jawahar, DSP Geetha, Inspector Revathi and others appeared in Alamboondi village. CBCID police conducted fresh questioning of everyone the police had already interrogated, including the girl’s parents.
Following that, the police picked up Rajadurai, a history-sheeter who had already been questioned by the police, and took him to the school the girl attended and to the cremation ground area for questioning.
But since no information was found there either, he was sent back. Meanwhile, the DMK and the AIADMK held separate protests condemning the police and the TVK government. Likewise, as opposition leaders including former Chief Ministers Stalin and Edappadi Palaniswami took up the girl’s case, this case gained significance across Tamil Nadu.

Due to the pressure that arose from this, CBCID police have been repeatedly questioning those who were investigated by the police. Meanwhile, CBCID police from five districts, including Kanchipuram DSP Velmurugan, have been additionally deployed since yesterday.
In addition, the girl’s photograph has been sent to neighboring states including Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. But even from there, no information has been received so far.
Following that, as the police who had already been investigating the case had done, CBCID police have released phone numbers asking for information about the girl.
So the search for the missing girl has come back to where it started.!
