It is a case of alleged child sexual abuse that would have gone unreported if not for a Facebook post.
A 16-year-old from Kollam was reportedly abused by two men at a birthday party a couple of months ago.
It was a Facebook post published by a friend of the accused recently, that led to the incident that happened eight months ago, to be reported now.
The Kollam East police has taken a 26-year-old youth into custody for allegedly sexually abusing the minor. The victim works at an event management company, say police.
Circle Inspector of East Police station told The News Minute that Faizal, a salesman at a textile shop in the district was taken into custody on Wednesday morning, following a complaint filed by the parents of the victim.
In their complaint, the parents of the victim alleged that Faizal's friend recently shared a post on the social networking platform Facebook, that was derogatory in nature and mentioned their daughter.
"According to their complaint, one of the girl's friend (a woman, not a minor) took the girl to a house to attend a birthday party. Two men and two other women were also present at the house. It is at this time that the two men sexually abused the girl," the Inspector said.
The girl named all the five persons in her complaint, the police said.
Though regional media reports stated that Faizal was the son of a local CPI (M) leader and that the police had refused to register a case on March 18 when the family first approached the police, the police have denied it
"We are learning that the family first approached another police station. After they allegedly refused to take the complaint, the family approached the Commissioner on Tuesday, following which, a case under POCSO was registered at our station," the inspector said.
The police rubbished local media reports that stated that the accused had political connections and maintained that his father was working in the Gulf and was not a Communist leader.