Kerala Police have arrested 14 individuals after an 18-year-old Dalit woman from Pathanamthitta district alleged that she had been subjected to sexual abuse by 62 people over several years.
The investigation commenced following a meeting between the young woman, a district-level athlete, and volunteers from the Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society during a field visit. The woman, who disclosed her harrowing ordeal to the volunteers, subsequently informed the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
Pathanamthitta Superintendent of Police V G Vinod Kumar confirmed that the probe has been intensified. “Further cases will be registered based on the girl’s detailed statement, which is being recorded by women police officers in the presence of her mother. Action will continue based on her statements,” he said.
The accused individuals face charges under various sections including the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)1 Act, 1989. Five cases have been registered in the past two days.
Advocate N Rajeev, head of the Pathanamthitta Child Welfare Committee, revealed that the matter came before the committee in the second week of December. He claimed the woman had been facing sexual abuse since the age of 13.
“I advised the girl to report to the committee along with her mother. She received counselling and disclosed the sexual abuse she had endured since the age of 13 to a psychologist,” he stated.
Rajeev further explained that the woman’s family was unaware of the alleged abuse. “She had not confided in her mother. Given her involvement in sports, she had attended numerous camps over the years,” he noted.
“Psychologists associated with the Nirbhaya scheme assessed the credibility of her allegations. They also examined her father’s mobile phone, which she had access to, to identify the alleged abusers. As the investigation progresses, the possibility of involvement of more individuals cannot be ruled out,” he added, stating that the woman had been placed in a shelter under the CWC for her protection.
Police accounts detail a series of disturbing events, including allegations that one of the arrested individuals, aged 21, sent obscene photos and text messages to the woman when she was 13 and also obtained nude photographs. When the woman was 16, the man allegedly took her to a secluded rubber plantation and raped her, recording the act on his mobile phone.
It is further alleged that he and his associates gang-raped her on another occasion and obtained her father’s phone number. Some of the suspects are already facing various criminal charges, ranging from POCSO cases to culpable homicide.
The mobile phones of the arrested men have been seized by the police.
“A few of the arrested individuals are from the victim’s village. I spoke to the woman’s father, who expressed his complete ignorance of these incidents,” stated an individual acquainted with the family.
