This Friday, a special Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) court convicted a madrassa teacher for having unnatural sex with a minor boy inside his madrassa. Tirur First Track Special POCSO Court Judge C R Dinesh sentenced Elankur Cherukulam Kizhakkuprambil Sulaiman (56) to 37 years and six months of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs.80,000. 

Though Sulaiman is a native of Manjeri in the Malappuram district, the incident occurred in the same madrassa where he taught near Kalpakanchery. Rs.70,000 has to be paid to the victim. The convicted madrassa ustad will undergo an additional 34 months in jail if he refuses to pay the fine.  

The atrocity against the minor happened in April 2015. Sulaiman took the fourteen-year-old boy into a room in the madrassa attached to a mosque. He made the minor smoke cigarettes and sodomized him.

Though the victim went home, he acted strange, and his behavior tipped off his family. They approached the Kalpakanchery police station and registered a complaint. The accused was found guilty during the investigation.

In June 2022, the Tirur POCSO Court punished Chakalakkal Abdul Salam (50) with 15 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 40,000. In 2019, Salam took a 16-year-old to a vacant house at Iringavoor near Kalpakanchery and had unnatural sex with the minor boy. The convict was shifted to Kannur Central jail. 

In July of that year, the same POCSO court convicted Muhammad Basheer Maanu (40) of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy. The case was registered at the Kalpakanchery police station. He was condemned to 26 years of rigorous imprisonment under various sections and a fine of Rs 65,000. Back then, Basheer, the serial sodomizer, was lodged in Kannur Central jail, serving a sentence after being convicted in another sodomy case.

In April 2019, Basheer was arrested with five others for plying several minor boys with ganja and subjecting them to unnatural sex by the Kalpakanchery police. Along with Basheer, Iringavoor natives Unneen Kutty (71), Koya Haji (70), Siddique (46), Muhammad Suhail (28), and Abdus Salam (44) were arrested under the POCSO Act. Nine others were absconding. 

The incident came to light after a victim’s father became suspicious of his son’s behavior. According to the information he got from his son, the parent found three other minors who were his son’s friends and contacted their parents. They informed Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Officials, and the victims confirmed unnatural sex during counseling.

The modus operandi of the pedophiles was to addict minor boys by giving them cannabis for free and then using them for unnatural sex. Some victims were also paid money. Many victims were sexually abused multiple times. 

CWC authorities filed a complaint with Kalpakancheri police, and they conducted an investigation. The police found that a 15-member group was behind this racket, and all the accused were identified. Police claimed that four people, including Basheer from the arrested group, were the kingpins.

In October last year, Kalpakanchery police arrested Kunju Moidu Haji (65), a local leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), in a case of unnatural sexual harassment of a 15-year-old boy. Information about the abuse came to light when the minor was subjected to counseling. Haji absconded, but the investigation was intensified, and he was arrested. Earlier, three other accused in the same case were arrested. 

In August 2022, police arrested three for indulging in unnatural sexual harassment with a fifteen-year-old boy. Kundil Mustafa (55), Thavaramkunnath Razaq (39), and Kunnthedath Sameer (38) were detained by the Kalpakanchery Sub-Inspector. The police said that the minor had been a victim of constant abuse for the past year.

While Mustafa molested the boy seven times, the other two accused raped him once each. The information about the molestation came to light when the child began performing poorly in studies and was subjected to counseling. Subsequently, the accused were arrested based on the information provided by the CWC. The accused were charged under POCSO, produced in court, and remanded.

The list is long and almost endless, but the pattern is clear. Middle-aged men in Malappuram are preying on young boys and sexually assaulting minors. Minor girls, too, are subjected to rape and torture. Kalpakanchery Gram Panchayat is just one out of 94 Gram Panchayats, 15 Block Panchayats,one District Panchayat and 12 Municipalities in Malappuram. Fear of jail is not deterring those from a particular community from indulging in atrocities against children.