KOCHI: In a startling discovery, the police investigating the road accident in Kaloor in which one person died while another suffered serious injuries after getting hit by a car on February 10 have stumbled upon a gang that sexually abuses minor girls after getting them addicted to drugs.
This was unearthed in the interrogation of two youths from Tripunithura who were in the car that hit a scooter and a cart near Pavakulam Temple on Kaloor-Elamakkara road. The youths – Jithu, 29, of Aranjalil house and Sony Sebastian, 25, of Perumpallil house – were arrested by the Ernakulam North police following the accident.
“Jithu and Sony target minor girls. They get acquainted to them via Instagram and Facebook and in the guise of a ‘love affair’, start supplying drugs to them, turning them into addicts. Subsequently, the girls approach them for more drugs and the duo sexually assaults them,” said a police officer.
Initially, the police had booked the two for ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’ and charged them under the NDPS Act after ganja-filed cigarettes were found from the car. Now, the duo has also been booked under Pocso Act.
The police started looking into the sexual abuse angle after eyewitnesses reported seeing two girls in school uniform inside the car at the time of the accident. They told the police that the girls fled when people waylaid the car near Deshabhimani Junction after the accident.
The police then received evidence that there were, in fact, three girls in the car. An inquiry was launched and the girls were traced following an inspection of the CCTV footage from the area. They were then questioned in detail.
“The girls told the woman officers about the sexual abuse by the accused persons. One of the girls was subjected to medical examination,” said an officer. Based on their statements, the arrest of the accused, who were already in judicial custody, was recorded again under Pocso Act. Jithu is a medical representative while Sony is unemployed. “We are checking their background. We are also investigating whether other people are part of the gang,” said Ernakulam North SHO Prasanth Clint.
Vijayan, 41, of Udaya Colony, Gandhi Nagar, who was pushing the cart, was killed while Rajasekharan, 63, of Elamakkara, who was on the scooter, was injured in the accident.