The Kerala Police have registered a case against Muslim leader Perode PM Abdurahman Sakhafi, manager of the Sirajul Huda English Medium School at Parakkadavu near Nadapuram in Kerala's Kozhikode district, for defaming a four-year-old girl, the lKG student who was sexually assaulted by two senior students at the school, and her family through his public speech.
Sakhafi, also the general secretary of the Sirajul Huda Education Complex which is running the school, has been accused of concealing the heinous incident of rape and for delivering a speech in which he made references that brought disrepute to the victim and her parents.
The case was registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Juvenile Justice Act at the Valayam police station near Nadapuram, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl's father with the Superintendent of Police (Rural), Nadapuram.
The rape had taken place on October 30 but the girl’s family came to know of it only on November 7 after she developed health issues. The police, on November 15, arrested Shamsuddin (18) and Mushabir (19), both from Thalassery, Kannur, students of a religious course in the Muslim management school and staying in its hostel.
The police said that Sakhafi made a speech in a way that could adversely affect the probe into the rape and also for the inordinate delay on his part in passing the information of the heinous incident to them. In his speech, Sakhafi had made scathing allegations against the four-year-old girl and her family.
According to the girl’s father, Sakhafi and his associates were spreading false stories about him, his daughter and the family as they had refused to cooperate in the efforts to hush up the case. He said the school management had, after the incident, threatened the girl and had forced her to tell her mother that the injury she had suffered during the sexual assault was caused by a tree twig.
The Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which has initiated an enquiry of its own into the incident, viewed Sakhafi's speech. The Commission would examine whether there was any failure on the part of the police in the probe. There were allegations that the police had been trying to sabotage the case.
The police had arrested the two senior students only after the girl's relatives, local residents and various youths and political outfits held intense agitations at the school and the police station at Valayam. In a mysterious move, the police, prior to the students' arrest, had taken into custody the cleaner of the school bus but had to release him following protests.
Sakhafi and his associates had protested against the arrest of the two senior students. He had alleged that the arrest of two students undergoing religious course was intended at maligning the reputation of the school. But the police said they had arrested the duo on the basis of evidences collected through scientific investigations.