THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three youngsters were arrested by the Kadinamkulam police under the Pocso Act for alleged sexual abuse of three minor girls studying in a convent under the Kadinamkulam police station limits. The arrested are Merson, 23, of Vallakkadavu, Renjith, 26, of Muttathara and Arun, 21, of Valiyathura.
The police said the youths were found to have parked their bikes outside the boundary wall of the convent on Wednesday midnight. As the police were searching the vehicles, the youths came out of the convent scaling its wall. They were taken into custody and it was during their interrogation that the police came to know about the sexual abuse episodes.
The police deputed a woman police officer to interact with the girls and she came to know that they were subjected to abuse on multiple occasions.The three were fishermen and thick friends, the police said. A police source said it was Merson who first developed a friendship with a girl, who hailed from Pozhiyoor.
The friendship had started over a missed phone call and blossomed into an affair. After he successfully trespassed into the convent and met the girl, he later brought along with him two of his friends, who befriended two other girls.
The police source added that the trio used to visit the convent in the wee hours and consumed alcohol with the girls in their rooms. The three were produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.