In yet another startling case of brutal child rape in Kerala, six people including the parents of the teenaged victim have been arrested in Kannur. The girl told the police that she was being raped by her father and many others since she was 11. The victim, hailing from Alakkode in Kannur district, is now 17 years old.
According to the police, the parents had presented the girl to several men in Kannur and Kasaragod districts for sexual abuse in exchange for money. The accused included girl’s father Viswanathan (55), mother Radhamani, relatives Rajan (45) and Sabu (45), autorikshaw driver Jimmi (39) and neighbour Asin.
The police have collected information from Radhamani on more persons who had abused the girl with the connivance of the parents. Officials hinted that more people could be arrested in the coming days. The girl, presently in a traumatised state, had been admitted to a women’s care facility in Kannur, said the police.
Two cases under Section 376 for rape and three under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act had been registered against the accused. Radhamani and Jimmi were arrested on Thursday while the girl’s father and others were held two days back. A special police team had been constituted to investigate the incident.
The police had come to know of her long ordeal when they questioned the girl, who was found wandering in a dazed condition along a deserted road in Kasaragod. The girl fled from a house in Thalankara, Kasaragod where she was working as a maid after she was raped by a relative of the owner.
She told the police that it was Viswanathan, her father, who had dropped her at the house in Thalankara to work as a housemaid, her mother Radhamani used to send her to Kozhikode to work in apartments there. Officials said the girl was unable to recall all the men who had abused her.
A similar case was reported from Paravur near Kochi in June, 2011 where a 15-year-old girl was first raped on knife-point by her father Sudheer and later pushed into flesh trade. About 200 men were involved in this case. The parents are under rigorous punishment.
As per the statistics of the Kerala State Crime Records Bureau, 159 incidents of child rape had been reported in the State in the first three months of this year. The total number of crimes against children reported till March this year was 480. Records show that 455 rape cases had been registered in the State in 2012.