
Kerala police have arrested five men in connection with the sexual assault case of a minor girl in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta. The abuse came to light when the 17-year-old girl revealed the abuse in a counselling session conducted at her school. The police have registered cases against nine men, including her cousin, a Student Police Cadet (SPC) trainer in the school and a minor boy. Of the nine Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) cases, eight have been registered at the Adoor police station and one has been registered at the Nooranad police station in Alappuzha district.
A teacher at the school the girl was studying at noticed that she had stopped attending classes. Advocate N Rajeev, chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Pathanamthitta, told TNM that she refused to go to school after one of her classmates told her that her nude photo had been distributed through the Telegram app. Subsequently, some of her friends stopped interacting with her. Later, she attended a counselling session at her school and the school authority informed CWC about the abuse.
The first incident occurred when she was studying in Class 7. “She was not doing well academically. So her parents took her to a local godman because they thought he would do some rituals to improve her academic performance. He initially abused her right in front of her parents and later closed the door claiming to perform pooja and again abused her,” said Rajeev. Over a period of time, eight men, including her classmate, who is a minor, her cousin, and her school teacher, who trains her for the Student Police Cadet in the school, sexually abused her.
Adoor police told TNM that they received the complaint on January 23 through the CWC and they initiated the probe on the same day. Of the four who have still not been arrested, two are said to be overseas and one is a minor. Nooranad police have not made an arrest in their case.
The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the POCSO Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).