The parents of a 17-year-old girl from Kerala, who was found dead months after she lodged a sexual assault complaint against her Karate master, have come forward to demand a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry. Amina (name changed) was found dead on February 19, 2024, days before she was to give her statement against Sidheek Ali (48), against whom she had filed a sexual assault complaint in 2023.
After her death, the Vazhakkad police booked Sidheek under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Currently under arrest, Sidheek had been teaching Karate in Oorkadavu in Malappuram district for nearly 20 years.
On August 21 in 2024, Amina’s mother met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and submitted a request to hand over the case to the CBI. The family also demanded that the teacher be charged with murder, raising suspicions over how the girl’s body was recovered from the Chaliyar river. The first information report (FIR) had recorded Amina’s death as a suicide.
“The body was found in the shallow part of the river, where nobody can drown. She was wearing a kurta-churidar when they found her, but the top was missing from the body. Police said that it could have happened when the body flowed with the river. But her footwear was intact on her feet,” Amina’s sister told TNM.
The case was handed over to the Kozhikode Crime Branch in March 2024. Apart from the family, the Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Children has also recommended a CBI inquiry.
After her death, multiple teenage girls who trained in the same Karate institute as Amina raised sexual harassment complaints against Sidheek.
Earlier, in 2022, a minor student from the same Karate institute had lodged a sexual abuse complaint against Sidheek. But when the case reached the court, she turned hostile, leading to his acquittal. However, she has now approached the Kerala High Court to revive the case and has filed an appeal against his acquittal. She stated that her earlier withdrawal was due to threats from Sidheek and his aides. Other survivors have also registered cases against him.
According to advocate Samad Kondotty, the public prosecutor in Amina’s case, Sidheek has been booked in four POCSO cases and one case of abetment to murder in connection with Amina’s death.
Abuse in the name of training
“Sidheek used to emotionally manipulate his students and abuse them. They could not even tell their families what happened to them in class,” Amina’s sister told TNM.
Amina’s family, which includes her parents and three sisters, hails from Edavannapara in Malappuram. Amina was a black belt holder in Karate, and had started training at the age of 14. Amina was studying in class 11 when the incident occurred.
Sidheek ran his Karate training institute on the terrace of his house at Oorkkadavu. For the past 20 years, students of all genders, ranging in age from five to 65, have trained under him there. In addition, he also taught Karate at various schools in Malappuram.
His training centre was closed following the death of Amina and his subsequent arrest. Some of his students set up another centre at a different location, where they continue to provide Karate training.
According to Amina’s sister, Sidheek abused his students by making them believe sexual acts were part of the Karate training routine. “He posed as their ‘guru’ and convinced them that they needed to surrender their body and mind to him for enhanced training. He even told students that what he did to them was important for pain relief,” she said.
After she completed class 10, Amina had stopped attending Karate classes as frequently as she used to. Her family remembers her being severely distressed after returning home from training one day. They say that was when she herself realised she was being sexually abused by Sidheek.
They took her for psychological counselling, made enquiries at the Karate institute, and informed the police. Later, in a 14-page letter to the Child Welfare Committee in Kozhikode, Amina elaborated the abuse she endured in detail. The Committee transferred it to the police.
Days later, as she prepared herself to speak to the police, Amina was found dead.
On March 11, nearly a month after her body was found, the police found that Sidheek was operating the Karate institute at Oorkadavu without a license, and booked him under Section 121 of the Kerala Police Act, 2011, which pertains to punishment for offences under the Act.
According to P Raveendran, general secretary of the Kerala Wushu Association, Sidheek ran the institute as a franchise of the United Martial Arts Academy International, in partnership with Dr Arif CP, who is the founder of the Academy.
Raveendran also alleged that in May 2022, another martial arts trainer who he identified as Pratheesh, who had been working in the Academy’s Wayanad franchise was arrested in connection with an alleged POCSO case.
When TNM contacted Arif, he denied any connection with both Sidheek and Pratheesh.
‘She was murdered’
Amina’s family strongly believes that she would never take her own life, and that she was murdered. “We have several reasons to think so,” her sister told TNM.
“On the evening of Amina’s death, she prepared tea for our parents. After a while, we noticed that she was missing, and their search for her ended at the bank of the Chaliyar river,” the sister said.
“Amina was a strong girl. She was frightened by what would have happened if Sidheek had done something to her or the family. Despite that, she had resolved to fight the case legally. She would never die by suicide,” her sister said, adding, “There were witnesses who saw two strangers near the riverbank that evening.”
The family alleged that the Crime Branch investigation was not impartial. “They did not gather data from her mobile phone. We are not satisfied with the police investigation, as well as the one conducted by the Crime Branch. We want a CBI inquiry on this matter,” Amina’s sister said.
The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Children also recommended to the Home Department that the case be handed over to the CBI for investigation, under Section 15 (steps to be taken upon completion of inquiry) of the Child Rights Protection Act, 2005. The order was issued by Commission Chairman KV Manoj Kumar after also taking into consideration the family’s demands, on September 25, 2024.
Crime Branch Deputy Superintendent of Police Chandramohan, the investigation officer of the case, told TNM that the investigation is ongoing and more details can not be revealed at this point. He also added that the investigation team has sent Amina’s mobile phone to Delhi for forensic examination.