The Crime Branch on Friday arrested Janaseva Shishubhavan chairman Jose K Maveli for covering up the alleged sexual harassment of children that happened inside the orphanage.
A former inmate of the centre, who allegedly sexually abused five children and the computer teacher of the centre Robin, have also been arrested.
Robin’s arrest was also for concealing the crime that happened inside the centre.
Jose K Maveli has been arrested under sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), Crime Branch DySP Rustom, who is the investigating officer in the case, confirmed to TNM.
“He has been arrested under POCSO. There is a particular section in POCSO, 21 (2) that if any information regarding POCSO violation takes place by the authorities, it has to be reported before the police officer concerned or at a police station. If a person in charge of an institution fails to do so, he has committed an offence under this section. The actual offence was committed by a former inmate one and half years ago. He was a minor then and is now 18 years old,” the officer added.
The three had been summoned on Thursday by the officer, who interrogated them and recorded their arrest by evening.
The orphanage, with centres based at Aluva and Nedumbassery in Ernakulam, was being run by Maveli. The government took over both the centres earlier in May, after allegations of irregularities surfaced.
The state government on June 21 told the Kerala High Court that children housed at the Shishubhavan were sexually abused and subjected to physical torture. The government also said that four children had gone missing from the orphanage.
In a report submitted by the Social Justice Department, prepared by the Child Protection Officer Manjeri, Vishnu, an employee at the centre used to take the children to his room and forcibly make them see pornographic content. Vishnu reportedly beat up the children if they refused to go to his room and did not follow his instructions to ‘imitate’ what they were being shown.
Jose Maveli has been in other controversies earlier.
In October 2016, he and a group led by him had beaten 27 dogs to death.
This was a day after a 90-year-old man died after he was attached by a group of stray dogs at his residence in Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram.