A health inspector employed by the Thiruvananthapuram corporation was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl at a spa in Kovalam, adding a municipal official to a widening investigation into establishments operating across Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Police said the inspector, identified as Anuroop, was arrested after investigators found cash transactions involving him and the establishment. An officer at Kovalam police station said Anuroop did not own the spa. He was arrested by a nine-member Special Investigation Team formed to investigate the case.
Following the arrest, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor V V Rajesh suspended Anuroop, according to reports cited by PTI. The arrest places the conduct of a civic health official under scrutiny as the investigation examines the operations and links of multiple spas where the girl allegedly stayed or worked.
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 worked at a spa in Guduvanchery, near Chennai, where she was allegedly subjected to similar abuse. A zero FIR was registered in that matter and forwarded to the concerned police station in Chennai, according to police.
The case has therefore expanded beyond a single establishment in Kovalam. Investigators are examining the movement of the minor between locations, the people associated with the spas and the financial transactions that led to the municipal health inspector’s arrest. The supplied police account does not establish the inspector’s exact role in the alleged assault, and the investigation remains underway.
Police also traced the girl’s maternal aunt and her husband to Palasamudram in Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Sathya Sai district after the couple went missing. They were taken into custody from their residence within the limits of the Gorantla police station on Monday.
Police said the girl lost both her parents when she was about two years old and had since been raised by her maternal aunt. The circumstances surrounding her movement between states and workplaces are part of the wider investigation.
The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has separately registered a case concerning the alleged assault at the Kovalam spa. On Monday, it sought reports from the District Police Chief, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation Secretary and the District Child Protection Officer. Those reports are expected to provide the authorities with information on the police investigation, municipal oversight and child-protection measures connected with the case.
