HC grants bail to Anupama Padman in Oyoor child abduction case

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court Monday granted bail to Anupama Padma, the third accused in the case of abducting a six-year-old child from Oyoor in Kollam. The court granted conditional bail to her. Anupama had requested to grant bail to continue her studies.

The Kollam First Additional Sessions Court had earlier rejected her bail plea for the same demand. The court then rejected her plea after accepting the prosecution argument that there is a possibility of influencing and intimidating the witnesses if bail is granted.

The police had said that the family’s financial issues were allegedly the motive behind the abduction of the girl.

Anupama is the daughter of K R Padma Kumar (51), the first accused in abducting the child from Oyoor in Kollam and second accused Anitha Kumari (39). The first two accused have so far not submitted bail pleas.

The family abducted the girl in last November 27 in 2023. They later abandoned the child at the Ashramam Maithanam in Kollam the next day. The family was taken into custody on December 1st from Tamil Nadu. The case registered by the Pooyappally police was investigated by the district rural crime branch team and the chargesheet was filed on February 8.

Anupama was a dancer and a YouTuber. She was active in Facebook. She had 5 lakh subscribers in YouTube alone at the time of her arrest.