KOCHI: Six months have passed since the sexual abuse of a Class IV student of a Palathayi school in Kannur first came to light, shaking the conscience of Kerala society. While the medical examination report proved the girl was sexually abused, the Crime Branch (CB), which was entrusted with the task of conducting a detailed probe four months ago, continues to struggle in unearthing vital evidence to nail the perpetrator.
Though the victim had given detailed statements to the police and counsellors about the alleged culprit, who is a teacher of her school, the investigating officers have not been able to find any corroborating evidence, including digital evidence, to link the accused with the crime.The Crime Branch officers have been criticised, alleging that they purposely omitted the victim’s medical report — the crucial evidence — in the final report submitted before the Thalassery Pocso court to help the accused.
The medical report prepared by a senior doctor of the Thalassery General Hospital on March 18, 2020 clearly stated that the victim was sexually assaulted. “The Crime Branch has totally ignored the medical report proving sexual assault and went ahead with a final report by evoking only Sections 323 and 324 of IPC (voluntarily causing hurt) and Sections 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) and 82 (care and protection of children) of the Juvenile Justice Act. They completely dropped relevant sections of the Pocso Act,” said Mohammed Shah, the victim’s counsel.
A senior CB officer monitoring the probe begged to differ. “We haven’t dropped the Pocso charges. We’ve clearly submitted before the court that a detailed probe is on to prove Pocso charges against the accused. We need to find whether any other persons are involved in the crime. As of now, we’ve only filed a report based on the evidence collected so far,” the officer said.
The documents analysed by TNIE showed that of the statements of 19 witnesses submitted by the Crime Branch in the final report, 18 — except by the victim — do not relate to Pocso charges.
Mohammed Shah said the probe team also failed to include the statements of the doctor, who conducted the victim’s medical examination, the girl’s mother and another child whom the victim had mentioned in her statement.When TNIE contacted the doctor, she confirmed preparing the medical report of the victim on the sexual abuse. However, the CB team maintained they had collected all relevant statements from the doctor and other witnesses.
“We’ll submit them before the court when the report on Pocso charges are filed,” the senior CB officer said.The credibility of the probe was questioned following a difference of opinion between the prosecution and probe team over the mode of investigation. On July 22, 2020, B P Saseendran, the District Government Pleader and Thalasserry Public Prosecutor, had filed a statement before the court seeking further investigation.
His statement read: “CBCID could have recorded the statement of the victim by an expert senior lady IPS officer. The investigation agency could have submitted the medical examination report of the victim along with the final report.” The probe ran into controversy from its very beginning when the local police failed to nab the accused based on her statement. The accused was arrested only on April 15, nearly a month after the FIR was lodged.
The incident took a political and communal turn when local activists of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) launched a protest demanding the arrest of the accused and CPM leader P Jayarajan came out criticising the SDPI’s intention to communalise the incident. Many local social activists only made the demands to book the real culprit and deliver justice to the child.Human rights activist E Maneesh, who played a key role in bringing the issue to light, called for a sincere and detailed investigation.
“The child was sexually abused. We are not accusing anyone specifically. But whoever committed the crime should be punished,” he said, adding that the entire incident took a political turn when certain other groups joined the protest.
“We distanced ourselves from the protests fearing a hidden agenda behind these groups. Our only demand is that the culprit, whoever he is, should be punished,” he said.
(With inputs from M A Rajeev Kumar in Kannur)
