Amid calls for a CBI probe, the girl’s mother was reportedly questioned for seven hours as investigators examine several possibilities, including abduction.

October 25, 2026 | Villupuram, Tamil Nadu

The disappearance of a seven-year-old girl who had been sleeping at home with her parents near Gingee in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district has been transferred to the state police’s Crime Branch–Criminal Investigation Department, or CB-CID. The investigation has intensified after 13 days of searches failed to locate her.

Although investigators are examining several possibilities, including suspected abduction, no confirmed information about her whereabouts has been released so far.

The seven-year-old, from Naduppattu village under Alampoondi panchayat near Gingee in Villupuram district, was studying in Class Two at a local government primary school.

She celebrated her birthday with her family on October 11, 2026, and went to sleep at home with her parents as usual that night. When her parents woke early the next morning, October 12, they discovered that she was missing.

Her shocked parents and relatives searched the areas around the house, agricultural fields and canals. Unable to find her, they lodged a complaint at Sathyamangalam police station.

Police registered a case following the parents’ complaint and formed special teams to begin an extensive search for the girl.

Reports said eight special teams were deployed under the leadership of the district Superintendent of Police and that more than 100 police personnel took part in the searches.

Intensive searches were conducted in the village and surrounding areas, including agricultural fields, thorny scrub, wells, water bodies, hills, caves and rock crevices.

Police sniffer dogs, drones and thermal-detection equipment were also used in the search operations.

Fire and rescue personnel and fishermen were called in to assist with searches of deep wells and water bodies.

Despite these extensive efforts, investigators did not find firm clues that could establish where the girl had gone or what had happened to her.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government said police had examined CCTV footage from the area and approximately 600 mobile-phone call records in connection with the disappearance.

Footage from cameras along roads in Alampoondi, Naduppattu and towards Tiruvannamalai was examined in particular.

Investigators also sought to determine whether suspicious individuals or vehicles had been moving in the area around the time the girl disappeared.

Reports also said police questioned people previously linked to criminal cases and individuals against whom cases had been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, known as POCSO.

However, with no significant progress after ten days of searches and investigation, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal ordered the case transferred to the CB-CID on October 21.

CB-CID officers subsequently took charge of the investigation on October 22.

Officers including CB-CID Superintendent of Police Jawahar, Deputy Superintendent of Police Geetha and Inspector Revathi visited the village where the girl had disappeared and conducted inquiries.

Documents relating to the investigation carried out by Sathyamangalam police, including the First Information Report and information collected so far, were also handed over to CB-CID officers.

The girl’s parents, relatives, neighbours and other villagers have since been questioned separately.

On October 24, CB-CID officers visited the Alampoondi Panchayat Union Primary School, where the girl studied, and questioned teachers about matters including her school attendance.

Reports published in the early hours of October 25 said the girl’s mother, Bhavani, was then questioned for approximately seven hours in a separate room at the school.

Officers reportedly asked about those who attended the girl’s birthday celebration, events at the house that night, the time she went to sleep and the circumstances in which her disappearance was discovered the next morning.

Meanwhile, Bhavani alleged to the media that, during earlier police questioning, officers had questioned her on suspicion that she was responsible for her daughter’s disappearance and had threatened her.

She said she did not know what had happened after her daughter went to sleep that night and that her wish was for the child to be found quickly.

These are allegations made by the girl’s mother. Their accuracy has not been independently confirmed.

CB-CID officers have also widened their inquiries into the possibility that the girl was deliberately abducted.

Some media reports said investigators were examining whether she might have been taken elsewhere or unlawfully handed over to other individuals.

However, no evidence confirming these suspicions has been publicly released. It therefore cannot be treated as established fact that the girl was abducted or sold.

On October 21, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran had called for the case to be transferred to the CBI or CB-CID after the local police investigation failed to make progress.

The case has not, however, been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, which operates under the central government. It has been transferred to the Tamil Nadu police’s CB-CID.

The search entered its 13th day on October 24. As of the early hours of October 25, there was no confirmed information that the girl had been rescued or that her whereabouts had been established.

With the reason for her disappearance still unknown, CB-CID officers are continuing their investigation.

How did a seven-year-old girl sleeping at home with her parents disappear? What happened to her, and where is she now? As these questions remain unanswered, her family’s foremost hope is that she will be found and brought back safely.