People now remember
only the Calicut PenVanibham. But Kunjalikkutty was
involved in another high profile case earlier -
Kothamangalam case. Most of these are fogotten even on
the Web. Here is the story. |
Satan's Own Country
Sex scandals sweep
across the tiny state of Kerala with seasonal regularity.
Tales of sexual exploitation and flesh trade keep
recurring. Beneath the beauty flows muck.
By JM at http://www.dancewithshadows.com/kerala_sexual_depravity.asp
It can't be God's own
country, by any stretch of imagination. The sex scandals
sweeping the tiny state of Kerala have convinced me of
this. God left that country long time back. Hormones have
taken over.
The sexual exploitation saga in the state started with
the Suryanelli case. In 1996, in the Suryanelli village
in the backward district of Idukki in Kerala, a minor
girl was lured by a bus conductor and abducted.
Subsequently, she was transferred to two others, one of
whom a woman and the other a lawyer.
She was presented to the high and mighty in the state's
socio-political spectrum and raped by several persons
before she was let off. The 16-year-old student's sorry
story started on January 16, 1996 and ended on February
26, a period during which was she was raped by about 43
persons. She was ferried across the state in the flesh
market. Her captors gave her a small amount of money
before leaving and threatened her with dire consequences
if she told anyone about what had happened
The tale shocked Kerala's
consciousness, or so we thought. The society erupted in
indignation and there were cries for blood. The names of
several big shots in the state figured in the scandal.
The case dragged on for four years, and the ruling Left
Democratic Front set up a special court to try the
offenders. Finally, in what was considered as exemplary
and deterrent judgment, out of the 39 accused, 35 were
convicted. One of the accused died during the period. The
last to be sentenced was advocate Dharmarajan, who was
among the initial abductors. He was in hiding for long,
but was finally captured and delivered to justice.
Dharmarajan got a life term.
Just when the Suryanelli dust was settling down, the
Vithura sex scandal blew up. Vithura, again, is a small
village near Thiruvananthpuram, the state's capital. It
involves a minor who was taken around Kerala and Tamil
Nadu and raped repeatedly. The Vithura victim was also
minor, lured by a woman in her neighbourhood in to the
flesh trade.
A prominent name figuring in the case is noted talented
Malayalam comedian Jagati Sreekumar. The speedy trial of
the Suryanelli case by the special court has led to a
clamour from women activists for the trial of all major
sex cases in the special court. But investigation in the
case still drags on.
If novelty was the need of the hour, leave it to an
ice-cream parlour. The "ice-cream parlour
scandal" blew up years later, where an ice-cream
parlour in Kozhikode in North Kerala was used as a
front-end for flesh trade and lure girls into it. Again,
allegations of sexual exploitation of minors came up. One
of the prominent names in the ice-cream parlour case was
PK Kunjalikuty, the state's former minister from the
Muslim League. Political affiliations have never been a
hindrance to lust and comrades from Marxist party also
were named in the case. The investigation still drags on.
On October 5, 1997 a minor
lodged a complaint at the Kothamangalam police station
alleging that she was sexually exploited by more than 100
persons (43 of them identified by the police) over the
years. It was a neighbourhood youth who first
"handed over" the girl, promising a job, to a
financial institution. She was sexually exploited by a
number of persons in Kothamangalam. A middle-aged woman
to whom the victim confided her tale of woe took the
victim to Thiruvananthapuram promising a job and the girl
landed in a sex racket there. As part of the racket, she
was taken to various places in the State including
Kalamassery, Aluva, Neriamangalam, Kattappana, Kottayam
and Thiruvananthapuram. After almost a year of sexual
exploitation, she was dumped near her house at
Kothamangalam. The final judgement on the case still
awaited.
A hilarious aside popped up in the meantime.
Neelalohithadasan Nadar (Neelan for short) was Kerala
state Forests Minister when he tried to molest Deputy
Forest Conservator Prakriti Srivastava at the Nilambur
Guest House. Prakriti did not make an issue of it then.
That must have emboldened Neelan. He later became
Transport minister, and tried to molest Nalini Netto, the
then transport secretary. Netto did not remain silent,
but filed a case against Neelan. That spurred Prakriti
also to move for justice. The Prakriti Srivasatava case
dragged on for some time and finally, the judgement came
in September 2004, when he was sentenced to a one-year
imprisonment. Neelan, obviously, filed an appeal. We are
yet to hear the end of the case. Verdict in the Netto
case is not yet out.
By now, we are convinced that there is no end to Kerala's
sordid sex saga, and are eagerly awaiting the next one.
Kerala did not disappoint us. The Kiliroor sex scandal
reared it head last month, when a minor girl near the
Kottayam district (incidentally, the country's first
fully literate district) complained to the police last
month accusing a woman of trapping her after promising a
role in a TV serial. The girl alleged that Latha Nair had
exploited her for the past two years presenting her to
the high and mighty in business and politics. The suicide
of an entire family -- temple priest Narayanan
Nampoothiri, his wife and three children - which was
reportedly close to the prime accused in the case gave it
an unexpected twist. The investigating officer has been
fired for unexplained changed and contradictions in the
case diary and alterations made to the original
complaint. The Kerala high Court has already made sharp
observations about this. The prime accused has already
surrendered.
If you thought the Malayali's sexual desperation
couldnt fathom deeper pits, here is a tale-ender:
At the Kozhikode Medical College, about a year back, a
young woman was brought to the hospital with 75% burns --
she had attempted suicide -- and was under clinical care.
One of our Kerala comrades, who were supposed to take
care of the woman, raped the woman when she was taken to
a bath. Beat that.
BY JM
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