On 30 January, another sickening case of incest involving a madrassa teacher was reported from Vazhikkadavu village in Nilambur taluk of Malappuram district, Kerala. A Pocso Court sentenced the accused to three life imprisonment and a fine of Rs.6.60 lakhs. He will remain in jail for the remainder of his natural life.

According to Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) A Somasundaran, judge Rajesh K of the Manjeri Fast Track Special Court found the madrasa ustad guilty of rape, aggravated sexual assault, penetrative sexual assault, and intimidation of the victim under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

It all began in March 2021, when the victim’s mother was allegedly not home. The then 14-year-old victim was attending online classes due to Covid-19. This was when the former madrassa instructor dragged his daughter out of her room and raped her. 

When the minor resisted, the depraved father hit her all over her body and slapped her into submission. He threatened to kill her mother if she revealed the torture to anyone. The madrassa teacher raped his daughter several times when no one was at home until October 2021.

The victim started attending school when physical education classes restarted in November 2021. During this time, she experienced some abdominal pain, for which she was taken to a local physician, but suspiciously the doctor found nothing wrong. In January 2022, she was admitted to the government medical college after feeling discomfort again.

Here, it was confirmed that she was pregnant. By then, she was five months pregnant. This is how the outside world learned about the horrible incest-ridden sexual abuse. The hospital officials informed the police, and the girl disclosed that her father, the madrassa ustad was the perpetrator. Police registered a POCSO case based on the girl’s complaint and arrested the accused.

Later, the court allowed the victim to abort her fetus. The court also ordered a DNA test that showed that the madrasa teacher’s unborn baby was growing inside his daughter. Somasundaran said that the conviction of the accused depended heavily on the DNA evidence and the victim’s and her mother’s testimonies.

Prosecutors proved the crime within one year of filing the FIR. The convict never got bail and is currently lodged in the Manjeri sub-jail. Authorities confirmed that he would be shifted to Kannur Central jail.

It remains unclear whether Kerala police investigated whether this teacher had harassed other students in the madrassa where he taught.

In August 2021, HinduPost reported that the same Manjeri court sentenced another 55-year-old madrassa teacher to double life imprisonment for repeatedly raping two of his minor daughters. The jail terms run concurrently, and he will be in prison until his death. The victims were aged just 15 and 17. When the girls complained to their mother, the madrassa teacher threatened to kill them. 

The accused has eight children and used to rape his daughters after feigning quarrels with their mother at night, following which he used to sleep with the minors. His eldest daughter and his wife were both pregnant with his children when the madrassa ustad raped his younger daughter. Malappuram is the epicenter of such atrocities against children.

Way back in 2012, it was found that Kerala is the most incestuous society in the whole of Bharat. Statistics released by the Home Ministry showed that 132 incest rape cases were registered between 2001 to 2011. Per capita, it was the highest in our country. 

Kerala also held the dubious record of being the only state where incest rape cases steadily increased over the years compared to other states. The numbers came to light after the National Human Rights Commission released data collected over the decade. Tamil Nadu came second, but the numbers had steadily fallen, and zero cases were reported in the last two years.

Interestingly, instead of releasing such accumulated data to create awareness, they began to fade away from public view. This was allegedly due to appeasement policies since only a particular community was primarily found to indulge in incest. Madrassa teachers rape not just girls but also sodomize minor boys. 

In 2015, it was found that 70 percent of the sexual offenses committed against children in the state involved incest. In Kerala, 3,640 cases (2019), 3056 (2020), and 3,559 POCSO cases were registered in 2021. These numbers were up from 1,375 cases in 2014. 

Earlier, the central government had amended the (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offenses) POCSO Act by including the death penalty for sexual assault on children. For reasons best known to judges, not a single offender has been awarded such a sentence.