Girl missing in Gingee: CB-CID begins probe

Eleven days of extensive searches by more than 100 police personnel, thermal drones, and sniffer dogs have yielded no clue to the whereabouts of seven-year-old Hemalatha, who went missing on October 12 from Nadupattu, a village near Gingee, in Villupuram district.

On Thursday (October 22, 2026), the CB-CID, to which the case was entrusted by the Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police/Head of Police Force, started its investigation.

The Class II student was reported missing in the early hours of October 12. The previous day, she had celebrated her birthday and then went to bed with her parents, Vadivelu and Bhavani, and grandmother around 11 p.m.  Her family discovered her absence around 6 a.m. and searched relatives’ and neighbours’ houses before approaching the Sathiyamangalam police. A case was registered. 

Since then, it has been an agonising wait for the family. “We were all sleeping inside. We had closed one door and left the other open for ventilation, as we usually do. When I woke up around 6 a.m., she was missing. She had been sleeping beside me,” Ms. Bhavani said.

The family initially searched around the house, thinking that the girl might have stepped out to relieve herself. Their home has no toilet, and they searched the nearby fields, a canal behind their home, and the area towards a nearby burial ground. “We searched everywhere nearby, but could not find her. We then informed the police,” she said, adding that the police arrived soon.

Hemalatha is the younger of two daughters. Her sister is a college student. Her mother said the family did not suspect anyone and had no explanation for the disappearance. “We do not know what had happened or how she went missing. We cannot say she was abducted,” she said.

The search expanded into a wider operation involving special police teams, Fire and Rescue Services personnel, forensic experts, sniffer dogs, and drones. Wells, waterbodies, farmland, and nearby hillocks were searched. The police initially deployed five special teams and then increased the number to eight.

The teams examined the backgrounds of people in the locality and neighbouring villages who have criminal records, including cases registered against them under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. They checked whether anyone had gone missing from the village since the child’s disappearance.

Fire and Rescue Services personnel also searched wells and other waterbodies, along with fishermen brought from Kottakuppam near Marakkanam to help in the operation. However, no breakthrough was reported.

On Tuesday (October 20), the police dug through a waste-dumping area near the girl’s house. Investigators are examining whether a gang abducted the child and travelled through nearby villages. The police are coordinating with their counterparts in other districts to examine CCTV footage.

“It appears to have been a planned incident. The case files will be handed over to the CB-CID team, and we will provide any assistance it requires,” a police officer said.

The police also examined around 600 calls recorded by three mobile phone towers between 11 p.m. on October 11 and 3 a.m. the following day. They reviewed the footage recorded between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. by two CCTV cameras on the road from Alampoondi to Tiruvannamalai and another CCTV camera near Nadupattu Road. Notices carrying the girl’s photograph have been circulated to the police stations across Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, the prolonged absence of a breakthrough prompted political parties to call for intensifying efforts to trace the child. On Thursday, DMK workers, led by Arani Member of Parliament M.S. Tharaniventhan and former Minister Gingee K.S. Masthan, blocked the Tiruvannamalai Road, accusing the police of a lackadaisical approach. They demanded that the government intensify efforts to locate the child and provide answers to her family.