The police on Thursday arrested two persons in connection with a case that involved drugging and raping a girl at Karukaputhur, near Pattambi.
The police had to swing into action following a directive from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the girl’s mother complained against a handful of persons. A hunt is on for three others involved in the racket.
Abhilash from Mezhathur and Noufal from Chathanur were arrested for rape and booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Abuse from 2019
Although the survivor is an adult now, she was a minor when the alleged abuse began in 2019. The accused allegedly continued to rape her after offering her ganja and other drugs in the last two years.
In her complaint, the survivor’s mother said that two of the accused, Mohammed and Noufal, had accosted them when they were living in a rented house at Karukaputhur and began blackmailing the girl saying that they had got her nude pictures through cameras hidden in their house.
According to the mother, the girl had to abandon her higher secondary studies because of being pestered by the accused. Abhilash, another accused, approached her through social media and offered to marry her.
He reportedly took her to a hotel at Pattambi under the guise of offering a job and raped her. She was raped by several others, including Shahul and Thouseef.
Racket exposed
The drug-and-rape racket came to light when the girl’s relatives found her with Abhilash on different occasions and questioned them.
The girl’s parents had complained to the police when she went missing from home on April 30. The girl appeared before the police along with one of the accused and said that she wanted to live with him. When the police found that she had crossed 18 years of age, they let her live with him.
However, when the girl’s mother examined her phone, she found that her daughter had been drugged and abused even before she had turned 18. She mentioned the continuous abuse in her complaint to the Chief Minister.
More preys
The police recorded the statement of the mother and daughter, and said that they would conduct a detailed investigation.
Meanwhile, the girl is reported to have told the police that several other girls of her age too had fallen prey to the drug racket. She said like her, several others were too being blackmailed into using drugs and being raped. The police said they were investigating the revelations.
