How Kerala minor Dalit athlete rape case reignites memories of serial rapes in the state

She is an athlete, currently pursuing post-secondary industrial training, and has just turned 18. (We are withholding details about her whereabouts, including the general location of her home.) When she first opened up about her experiences to the counsellors at ‘Snehitha’, a support initiative run by Kudumbashree volunteers, they were utterly shocked.

According to one counsellor, it felt like a church confession—a deeply sincere effort by a young girl to escape the harrowing life she had endured for the past four or five years. “We were stunned to hear her account, especially as she named the individuals she had been involved with, around 60 men, ranging from her peers to hardened criminals,” the counsellor said. The Kudumbashree volunteers informed the Child Welfare Committee, which subsequently took over the case.

“When we learned about the case, its sheer magnitude took us by surprise. We are accustomed to handling such revelations and cases involving minors and statutory rape. However, a case of this scale, with so many accused and spanning such a long period, was unprecedented for us. So, we decided to escalate it to the District Police Chief, following which the FIRs were registered,” said N Rajeev, chairman of the District Child Welfare Committee.

“When provided with proper psychological and social support, the girl opened up and revealed that she had the contacts of around 40 accused saved on her phone. She had been using her father’s phone, and he was unaware of the situation, so we had to enlist her mother’s help to access the phone. The father learned about the incident only after the police began apprehending the accused, many of whom were their neighbours and had been known to them for years.”

When The Federal visited her native village and the surroundings of the SC-ST colony where she lived with her parents, the atmosphere was totally unfriendly for the family. The father and mother were away, and the neighbourhood was decidedly hostile, placing the blame squarely on the girl, with particular animosity directed towards her mother. The community seems to have dismissed her father, whom they describe as often drunk and shirking his responsibilities.

Gomathi (name changed) a woman in her sixties, with her close relative being locked up as an accused was literally fuming at the survivor and her family. “How can you claim being raped for five years and by 60 odd people? Even a kid would understand that she was enjoying the whole act and was soliciting. The police should put her in the jail not our children. She is a sex addict, and I will blame her mother for everything, what was she doing when her daughter was sleeping around with an entire village?”

“I am sure that at least some of the people who have been apprehended by the police are innocent. She has named some people out of personal grudge. There are people whose lives have been totally ruined by these accusations and I do not think the family can come back to the place and live here anymore,” said another woman from the neighbourhood.

“People are overwhelmingly against her, and we find ourselves constantly defending her. They question what she was doing all these years and whether she was actually enjoying it. Most of the accused are from the same neighbourhood and are known to each other, which makes the issue even more complex. It is incredibly challenging to convince people about the concept of statutory rape when they are convinced that the girl was a willing participant,” says PV Vijayamma, a lawyer and feminist activist.

“But the positive aspect is that she, too, has come to understand the situation and feels regretful. She has not claimed that everyone literally raped her forcefully, but it did happen. Now, she recognises the gravity of it and wants to correct herself. However, the key factor here is that she was a minor at the time. All the accused in the case, except for a few of her friends, were adults. They knowingly exploited her, and it is evident that they will be prosecuted as they rightfully deserve,” says N. Rajeev.

“Since the first case was registered on January 10, the intensified investigation has successfully apprehended 57 out of 59 accused, with the exception of two individuals currently abroad,” said District Police chief VG Vinod Kumar. “Among those arrested, there are also five minors. The police team is working to complete the investigation in a timely manner and submit the chargesheet to the court. One of the accused in the first registered case, S. Sudhi, is currently in jail in connection with another POCSO case registered by the Pathanamthitta police last year,” added the DPC.

On January 11, a 25-member special investigation team led by the District Police chief was constituted, with the oversight of Thiruvananthapuram Range DIG, Ajitha Begum. There has been significant progress in the investigation in a short period, and legal actions have been taken to quickly apprehend the accused abroad.

“We can observe a class angle in this case as well. The survivor and most of the accused come from a socially underprivileged background, and since no one with significant social capital or political influence is involved, the arrests are happening swiftly, which is a positive aspect. The charges range from POCSO violations to the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act. However, in some instances, the perpetrators also belong to Scheduled Castes, which complicates the situation,” said PV Vijayamma.

In Kerala, serial rape cases have historically garnered special attention from both the media and the police, particularly when they involve high-profile individuals such as politicians, film actors, and people from the upper echelons of society. The survivor’s ordeal is often indescribable, with some cases dragging on endlessly for years. In certain instances, survivors have received proper rehabilitation, while others have simply faded into obscurity. There have even been cases where survivors fled the state or were forced into commercial sex work for survival.

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Meera (name changed to protect her identity), now a government employee, is married with a child and leads a seemingly normal life—a miracle, given the torment she endured as a teenager. In the late 2000s, she was caught in a police raid on a brothel operating in a suburban town in Kerala. Among the ten-plus accused, some were later sentenced to rigorous imprisonment, while others were acquitted.

At the time, she was just 16 years old and was placed in a government facility, where she completed her schooling and university education. She eventually secured a government job, married- interestingly an accused in the case against whom she did not testify resulting in his acquittal- and built a stable life.

Shobha, survivor of another serial sex racket case more or less had a similar life as Meera’s. Placed in a government facility after the tormenting process of trial, she met her soulmate in a non-Malayali worker, and settled after securing a government job, she opted for as a caregiver for the underprivileged.

One of the most infamous cases of serial rape reported in Kerala was the Suryanelli case from the late 1990s. The survivor, now 44 years old, currently works in a Kerala government department, a position offered to her as part of a political promise. However, she faced further victimisation within her workplace and was later ensnared in a fabricated financial mismanagement case orchestrated by the predators from her initial ordeal, forcing her to fight to clear her name.

Suryanelli was the first-of-its-kind case that Kerala heard of when the news broke in 1996. In February 1996, a 16-year-old girl from the high ranges of Idukki district in Kerala filed an FIR alleging that she had been abducted and repeatedly raped over 40 days by 46 men, including a prominent Kerala politician who was serving as a Union minister at the time.

A storm followed her in the aftermath, with the Left in the state rallying behind her and using her ordeal as a political campaign, while the Congress vilified her relentlessly, painting her as a child sex worker and a willing participant. This narrative was later echoed by prominent judges and even some courts, further compounding her plight.

It took a harrowing 22 years for the case to reach its conclusion. Predictably, the political leader was discharged, while 36 accused were eventually convicted and sentenced, with all appeals finally settled in the Supreme Court of India.

On September 6, 2000, a special court convicted 36 people in two separate chargesheets, but five years later the Kerala High Court acquitted all the accused, except one. The court ruled that the victim was a willing partner in the act since there was no sign or evidence of resistance. It took another eight years for the Supreme Court to set aside the acquittal, directing the HC to re-examine the matter. In February 2013, former justice R Basant, who was part of the Division Bench that acquitted the 36 accused of rape charges in 2005, made a statement that the victim was a deviant girl, which sparked off a controversy.

In April 2014, the High Court Division Bench gave a fresh hearing in the case, ruling that the victim was not a deviant or a child prostitute. The Court ruled that a girl of 16 years wouldn’t have sex with persons of her father’s age due to lust. The HC sentenced 15 of the accused to rigorous imprisonment of seven years for rape. Six accused were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for gang rape.

In 2018, the Supreme Court rejected the bail applications of those sentenced by the High Court.

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What awaits the survivor of the reported case is similarly daunting. The legal proceedings, currently in their initial stages, could stretch over several years or even decades, considering the history of such cases. With at least 30 FIRs registered against the 59 accused she has identified thus far, the process is expected to be prolonged, as each case must be addressed individually.

“In this case, apart from certain incidents involving gang rape, the proceedings are being handled separately. She will need to appear for evidence collection and statement recording before judicial officers at various locations. It is, therefore, difficult to determine how this will affect her routine, including her further studies. Currently, she is housed in Nirbhaya home, a government facility and is coping well. We are ensuring she is shielded from media and social media buzz surrounding the incident, although it remains a challenging task under the present circumstances,” said the district Child Welfare Committee chairman.

What sets this case apart from previous ones is that it was the survivor herself who came forward and testified. According to her counsellors, she is coping well after opening up, which is a positive sign. If she can manage the situation effectively and build a good life for herself, the system should support her by providing all the necessary assistance and treating her circumstances as a normal part of the process, as it has so far. Only then could this rare case prove to be a game changer for sexual harassment cases, potentially paving the way for a more supportive environment for survivors and encouraging others to come forward with their stories.

This case has the potential to reshape the discourse around sexual violence and demonstrate that the system can work effectively for those who seek justice.