Instances of sexual abuse in Kerala are on the rise. In the latest incident, seven inmates of an orphanage in Wayanad were sexually abused allegedly by local people. The police has taken into custody six persons in the case, says a report in a Malayalam daily. Three more accused in the case are yet to be nabbed by the police.
“We have taken the accused into custody. But the arrest has not been recorded yet,” Wayanad SP Rajpal Meena told The News Minute.
The victims reportedly are all school children, who were lured by the accused with the offer of candies and were subjected to abuse. The children are living in the hostel of the orphanage. The victims are students of classes seven, eight, nine and ten. The abuse had reportedly been going on for the last one year. The victims have given a statement to the police that more children were abused.
Kannur MP PK Sreemathi, who is also a member of the Committee on Empowerment of Women visited the girls at the Yatheemkhana, orphanage, on Tuesday morning.
“I went to visit the girls seeing reports on the abuse. Seven girls were subjected to sexual harassment and the accused shot photos and videos of the abuse. What happened was very heinous,” she told TNM.
Only recently, the incident of a 16-year-old girl who was impregnated allegedly by a priest, had come to light. Initially, the biological father of the girl told the police that it was he who had sexually assaulted the girl.
The Kerala police booked seven persons under POCSO, including five nuns, for allegedly helping Father Robin Vadakkumchery cover up the rape, and the resultant pregnancy of the 16-year-old.