KOZHIKODE: Several layers of mechanism have been put in place in the state to protect children in distress, especially girls. But all these have failed to save the life of an 18-year-old girl in Thenhipalam, a victim in six Pocso cases, who finally ended her ordeal by hanging herself on January 19 this year at a rented house.
On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court issued an interim order to provide police protection to her widowed mother and 14-year-old brother following a writ petition filed by the State Legal Services Authority’s victim rights centre. The helpless family is afraid of their security as the accused persons in the Pocso cases are out on bail.
“The eight accused in the Pocso cases are our relatives and acquaintances. They exploited her after approaching us in the guise of helping us after my husband died 11 years ago,” the girl’s mother said.
Stating that their’s was an inter-religious marriage, the mother said, “We did not have much support from his family. After his death, I had a hard time living with my children. We lived with the help of many people and some of them exploited our condition.”
The girl suffered sexual assaults from the age of 14 to 16.
The abuse came to light in March 2021 when she shared the incidents with her fiancé. Based on the places of occurrence of the crimes, five Pocso cases were registered in Feroke police station and one in Kondotty.
“I did not know any of these incidents. When more details of Pocso cases came out, the police and Childline intervened, I thought it would help my daughter get justice. But what happened was that we were humiliated in front of the family members in the name of evidence collection and investigation. Not just that the police had not protected the identity of my daughter, who was the victim, but they were more interested in publicising the sexual assault cases,” the mother said. Her daughter had written a letter revealing the mental stress caused by the investigation officer -- then Feroke Inspector -- before ending her life. “The inspector took three hours to take my fiancé’s statement and assaulted him physically. He also asked him to not marry a ‘prostitute’,” the letter said.
However, the police officer said the allegations were false. “The allegations against me were fabricated by the victim’s fiancé.... I had recorded several important pieces of evidence in the case and arrested some of the accused,” he said. The mother said after those stressful days of evidence collection, the relationship between her daughter and fiancé deteriorated.
“She tried to end her life several times after facing mental pressure from her fiancé. Once the police were informed about the harassment by the fiancé, but the issue was settled in conciliatory talks. Though she was a Pocso case survivor and showed suicidal tendency, we didn’t get the adequate medical or mental health support from any government institution.”
Even after all these, the victim was not even presented before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
‘CWC not approached’
Malappuram CWC chairman Shajesh Bhaskar said the committee’s intervention should be sought either by the investigation agency or the parents. But that didn’t happen in this case. Social activist Noushad Thekkayil said the girl and her family had faced severe social isolation. “Nobody was willing to even shift the girl’s body from the hospital mortuary to home.” The Kerala Legal Services Authority’s victim rights centre has now sought the constitution of a special team to investigate the death and take action against the police officer. The Pocso cases are under trial in courts, but one of the accused has gone abroad.