Kerala Police have reportedly registered two FIRs and have arrested six people after an 18-year-old Dalit girl in Pathanamthitta district alleged that 62 people had sexually abused her for five years.
“In one case we arrested five people and a lone accused in another case. More cases will be registered after verifying details. A deputy superintendent of police is heading the probe,” Pathanamthitta Superintendent Police V G Vinod Kumar said, revealing that the cases have been registered in two police stations.
The gruesome incident was highlighted when volunteers of the Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society met the victim, a district-level athlete, during a random field visit. The volunteers informed the district Child Welfare Committee when the girl wanted to talk about her bitter experiences in recent years.
The head of the Pathanamthitta CWC, Advocate N Rajeev, reported that the matter came up before the committee a couple of weeks before: “I told the girl to report before the committee along with her mother. She was given counseling, and she opened up before a psychologist, narrating the sexual abuse she has been facing since the age of 13.”
Advocate claimed that the girl’s family was oblivious of the alleged sexual abuse over the years. “She hadn’t shared anything with the mother. Since the girl is a district-level athlete, she has attended various sports camps over the years. That situation might have facilitated this series of sexual abuse,” he added.
“She used the mobile phone of her father, an alcoholic. Most of the perpetrators were identified from the list of contacts in the mobile phone. Many numbers were found saved in it,” Rajeev said.
“Psychologists with the Nirbhaya scheme spoke to her to ascertain the credibility of her claims. They also examined her father’s mobile phone to find out the names of the alleged abusers. Once the probe progresses, the chances of involvement of more people cannot be ruled out,” he said,
