A Thiruvananthapuram Corporation health inspector was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl from Andhra Pradesh at a spa in Kovalam, police said, prompting the civic body to suspend him.
The inspector, identified as Anuroop, was arrested by a nine-member Special Investigation Team investigating the case. Police said the arrest followed the discovery of cash transactions involving the official and the establishment. An officer at Kovalam police station said Anuroop did not own the spa.
Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor V V Rajesh suspended Anuroop after his arrest, according to the report. The action places the role of municipal officials in monitoring commercial establishments under scrutiny, although the police investigation will determine the nature of the alleged transactions and the official’s involvement.
The investigation began after the girl’s maternal aunt, who had raised her, filed a missing-person complaint on September 21. After the girl was traced, she disclosed during counselling that she had been taken to a spa in the Kollam area in late June or early July, where she stayed for about two months. She later spent around four days at another spa, police said.
Based on the investigation, police arrested the owners of the two spas. They have been remanded in judicial custody. The girl also told investigators that she had previously worked at a spa in Guduvanchery near Chennai, where she allegedly faced similar abuse. A zero First Information Report was registered in that matter and forwarded to the concerned police station in Chennai, police said.
The case has consequently expanded beyond one establishment in Kovalam. Investigators are examining the movement of the minor between spas in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the people responsible for the establishments, and the circumstances in which she was brought and kept there. The supplied police account does not establish the full chain of responsibility or whether any other officials were involved.
The girl’s aunt and her husband subsequently went missing, police said. They were traced to their residence in Palasamudram in Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Sathya Sai district and taken into custody from within the limits of Gorantla police station on Monday.
Police said the girl lost both her parents when she was around two years old and had been raised by her maternal aunt. Her account has also led to institutional action by the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which registered a case concerning the alleged assault at the Kovalam spa.
On Monday, the commission sought reports from the District Police Chief, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation Secretary and the District Child Protection Officer. These reports are expected to provide the authorities with information on the police investigation, the civic body’s regulatory role and the child-protection response.
The next stages of the case will depend on the SIT investigation, the reports sought by the child rights commission and proceedings against the arrested spa owners and other accused persons. The zero FIR relating to the alleged abuse in Guduvanchery has been sent to the relevant police station in Chennai for further action.
