KOZHIKODE: At a time when the Church is trying hard to wriggle out of the sticky situation following the Kottiyoor rape case involving a priest, another rape case came to light on Wednesday in which a coordinator of the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM) in Mananthavady diocese has been accused of impregnating a minor who later gave birth to a baby.
Police said they had taken the accused identified as Sijo George, 23, son of George, Mathisseri in Mananthavady taluk, into custody. According to the police, Sijo had allegedly raped the 17-year-old girl, who gave birth to a child at a private hospital in Kozhikode on December 28, 2016. The newborn, was later shifted to a convent in Kozhikode. Police said the accused was familiar with the girl as he was the KCYM co-ordinator in the region.
Hi-tech cell for action against man for paedophilic posts
T’Puram: The state Hi-tech cell has recommended registering a case against a person who posted paedophilic posts and comments on Facebook. Hi-tech cell inspector of police S Sreekanth handed over the report on Wednesday before the state police chief Loknath Behera after preliminary investigation. The recommendation was to prosecute Mohammed Farhad who posted obscene and offensive posts favouring paedophilia. Farhad had posted on how he caught the fancy of a Class V girl by offering her a chocolate on several occasions, and in due course the girl got overwhelmingly attracted to Farhad. The post went on to say he had love and lust towards her and this feeling was a common thing. He had also allegedly put several posts about sexually exploiting minor girls, police said.
Migrant labourer held for rape bid
T’Puram: The Thumba police on Wednesday arrested a 47-year-old migrant labourer for allegedly attempting to rape a 22-year-old woman after barging into her residence at Manvila near Kulathoor. The accused is Ghanashyam, a native of West Bengal. According to the police, the incident took place around 8.45 am when the woman was alone at her residence. The accused and the woman were known to each other earlier as the latter’s father is a rice merchant and they used to supply extra rice to migrant labourers. The accused came to the residence seeking rice in the morning. He broke open the door and tried to pull her hand. However, he ran away from the spot as she screamed loudly seeking help from neighbours. The accused was nabbed by the police later.
Man held for sexual abuse, blackmail
Kannur: The police here have arrested a 37-year-old man on charges of sexually abusing a woman and later extorting cash and gold from her after blackmailing her. According to a police officer, the accused Shafique, a resident of Irinavu, was arrested the other day based on a directive by DySP P P Sadanandan to CI T K Rathnakumar. The arrest was made following a complaint registered by an unmarried woman, who is a resident of Aluvil. In her complaint she said the accused had cheated her of 85 sovereigns of gold and over Rs 10 lakh in cash that was received as compensation following the death of her mother in a road accident. Shafique is already an accused in swindling several lakhs of rupees in the Valapattinam Service Cooperative Bank and had been arrested earlier. Police said the accused got acquainted with the victim and after sexually abusing her took videos on mobile.
Court to consider plea seeking custody
Kannur: Thalassery Session Court will consider the petition filed by the police seeking the custody of Fr Robin Vadakkancheril, who has been accused of raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl, at Kottiyoor, on Thursday. The case was postponed to Thursday by Additional District and Session Court Judge Sreekala Suresh citing lack of affidavit.The court will consider the anticipatory bail pleas of Christhu Raja Hospital administrator Sr Ancy Mathew, Gynaecologist Dr Sr Tessy Joseph and child specialist Dr Hyderali, on March 14.
Abuse of orphanage inmates: Six in judicial custody
Kalpetta: Six persons, who were accused of molesting seven minor girls of an orphanage at Kalpetta, have been remanded in judicial custody. The accused, who were produced before the Kalpetta POCSO court were sent to Vythiri sub-jail for 15 days. The police will approach the court to conduct identification parade of the accused on Thursday. It was on Tuesday that the police arrested six persons for sexually abusing seven inmates of an orphanage at Kalpetta. All the accused, aged between 25 and 40 were charged under various Sections of IPC and POCSO. Police also recovered mobile phones used by the accused for shooting objectionable photos and videos of the victims. The accused residing near the orphanage had abused the girls by trapping them in a room inside the hotel. Later, the girls were subjected to sexual abuse for many months. The accused had threatened to kill the victims if they divulged the incident to anyone. Meanwhile, District Child Protection officer Sheebha Mumtas conducted counselling for the inmates of the orphanage to find whether any other students were abused by the gang.
DySP M J Sojan to probe death of Walayar sisters
Palakkad: The investigation into the death of two minor sisters in Walayar has been entrusted with DySP (Narcotic cell) M J Sojan. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Northern zone IG Rajesh Dhewan and other police officers in Kozhikode on Wednesday. The meeting also removed Walayar sub inspector P C Chacko from the probe team, reportedly due to the lapses in the probe into the death of the elder sister. The police have taken four persons, including the victims’ relative Madhu, into custody. The police also recovered a mobile phone carrying the pictures of the victims from one of them. The post mortem report of the younger girl states that she had committed suicide. Veteran CPM leader VS Achuthanandan will visit the house of the tribal siblings who were found dead in Palakkad. His office said he would head for Palakkad on Thursday.
Youth in custody for raping, impregnating minor girl
Malappuram: The Malappuram police detained a youth for allegedly raping and impregnating a minor girl belonging to Scheduled Caste on promise of marriage, at Kolathur, near here, on Wednesday. Childline members, who have intervened in the incident, said that Irshad, 22, Meenarkuzhi, lured the 17-year-old girl, took her to various places and raped her. A Plus-I student, she was going to a higher secondary school at Makakraparamba, near here, when she was allegedly lured and then raped by Irshad. The incident came to light as she was taken to a hospital for medical care after she complained of uneasiness.