Swaraat / T S Venkatesan
Targeting college girls and minors are passion among the lustful animals in human garb to satiate their sexual pleasures. In the recent weeks, we have seen sexual attacks on 2nd year Anna University campus, research scholar outside IIT Madras campus, Puducherry Technological University student. In all these cases the victims were with their boyfriends and the predators attacked and shooed the boy friends away before committing the crime. Interestingly none of the friends (boys) did not use mobile phone to alert friends or police or raise alarm which is a million dollar questions that needs an answer.
It is not pertained to Tamil Nadu. There have been such instances in neighbouring Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The Kerala police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the case of a Dalit girl’s sexual abuse in Pathanamthitta, has arrested 44 individuals so far. District Inspector General (DIG) S Ajeetha Begum confirmed that 30 FIRs have been registered, implicating 59 accused. Initial investigation showed the survivor, now 18, was sexually abused by 62 individuals since the age of 13. Among the accused are sports trainers, classmates, and fellow athletes. The abuse reportedly occurred in multiple locations, including a private bus stand, a rubber plantation, and the Pathanamthitta General Hospital in January 2024. Her ordeal came to light during a Child Welfare Committee counselling session after her teachers flagged concerns about changes in her behaviour. Police said “Preliminary investigation suggested that the girl, who takes part in school level athletic training, was abused by sports trainers, fellow athletes and others,”
The Kerala police are gathering scientific evidence, examining mobile phones, and securing all necessary documentation to build a robust case.
The ice cream parlour sex scandal is a long running sex scandal in Kerala state. The grave charges first surfaced in 1997 that an ice cream parlour in Kerala was actually a brothel; it was alleged that a number of high ranking politicians were among the brothels’ owners. In addition, accusations have been made that members of the Kerala government have deliberately obstructed progress in the investigation in order to protect themselves, relatives, or friends.
Ice Cream Parlour case :
In 1997, following investigations by a women’s group, three minor girls had revealed how they were lured into the racket with promises of jobs. According to their complaint, Kunhalikkutty and others had sexually abused them while he was industries minister in the 1991-96 government led by A.K. Antony. Kunhalikkutty was exonerated by a court in 2006 after Rejina, a 22-year-old woman who had accused him, retracted her charges.
Supreme Court on 22 November 2013 issued notices to Kerala government and others on a plea of former Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan seeking a CBI probe into the Kozhikode ice cream parlour sex scandal.
Former chief minister that criminal justice has been subverted in a systematic manner in this case that can be rectified by only ordering an independent probe. He said “Young girls have been sexually exploited and to suppress the shocking incident monies have been exchanged. This is the shocking state of affair to say the least. I am afraid if this case does not warrant a CBI probe then which case will merit such kind of investigation”.
The new disclosures by Rauf had come a few months ahead of the April 2011 assembly polls and Achuthanandan, as the then chief minister, had ordered a fresh probe by a senior police officer.
The reopening of the 15-year-old “ice cream case” involving P.K. Kunhalikkutty, Muslim League’s general secretary and former industries minister following new revelations has thrown the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) onto the backfoot. The revelations were made by K.A. Rauf, an estranged accomplice and relative of Kunhalikkutty. The police has registered a fresh case in March 2011against Kunhalikkutty, 60, on charges of “procuring” minor girls, rape, conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
In 2022, another incident was reported in which a woman and her employer, with whom she was an having an affair, were arrested for aiding the man to rape her 16-year-old minor daughter on multiple occasions.
In 2017, a 14-year-old girl from Karungal, Kanyakumari, went missing from her home on September 9. She didn’t return home after going to Karungal area. As police visited Marthandam in search of the girl, they came to know the local residents had captured 4 men who attempted to take a girl on a bike against her will. Shocked cops, reached the spot and identified the girl.
Suryanelli sex scandal
In 2018 Kerala police arrested eight people for allegedly raping a 15-year-old school girl over different days and at various places for over a year in Kannur district, with the incident bearing similarities to the Suryanelli sex scandal that rocked the state in 1996. Police said the assault, was filmed and later the victim was blackmailed and raped by several others. The accused even tried to extort money from the girl’s brother by threatening to make the video public. It was only when her brother and other family members questioned her, the girl told them about the sexual abuse.
Senior police officers said the case has many similarities with the Suryanelli sex scandal. In 1996, a 16-year-old girl from Suryanelli village in Idukki district was lured by a bus conductor pretending love and pushed into flesh trade. She was raped by 39 persons in a span of 40 days. She was dumped when she developed some health problems. in 2014, a division bench of Kerala High Court convicted 24 of the 31 accused in the Suryanelli rape case
The Suryanelli rape case is that a 16-year-old girl who eloped with a bus conductor on January 16, 1996 from Suryanelli in Idukki district in Kerala was later abandoned by her lover and fell into the hands of rapists. The girl was taken to various places in Kerala by advocate Dharamarajan and Usha by threatening her that father will be killed if she try to escape from their custody. The duo made money by presenting her to various people at various places. The prosecution submitted that she was raped 67 times by 47 people during a period of 40 days and transported over 3000 kilometres. The case became sensational when the girl alleged that one of the rapists was Rajya Sabha speaker P.J. Kurien. He was later discharged from the case by the high court in 2007. In February 2013, the victim filed a fresh case against P.J. Kurien and the former Additional Director General of Police Siby Mathew (for forcing Dharmarajan not tell the name of P J Kurien), in the High Court. But her petition was rejected by the high court on October 23, 2013. The court maintained that Kurien was harassed despite getting a clean chit by the SC. A sessions court at Kottayam had sentenced 36 convicts on September 2, 2000, the high court acquitted all the accused except Dharmarajan on January 20, 2005.
A labourer Abhishek Kumar, 25, a native of Bihar, was arrested in Bengaluru on 13th January for allegedly raping a six-year-old girl and murdering her. The investigators said the girl’s parents, who are also migrant labourers, were at work on Monday when Abhishek Kumar allegedly lured the girl to an isolated place and raped her. The child reportedly died on the spot, after which he left the body there.