Walayar, March 10 -- The muddy, uneven path leading up to the home of the "Walayar mother" - as she is referred to in the local media - cuts through a largely arid desolate area with long, dry grasses and weeds on both sides, not far from the Walayar highway toll plaza on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.

It was on the afternoon of January 13, 2017, a regular day when both parents were out for work at a construction site, the body of the 13-year-old was found in the asbestos-roofed small brick shed in which the family lived. The house beside it was under-construction at the time. While the postmortem report indicated that she was sexually assaulted, the police failed to make much headway in the case. On March 4 that year, the girl's nine-yea...