A health inspector of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation 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, bringing the municipal administration into a widening investigation involving multiple establishments and jurisdictions.
The inspector, identified by police as Anuroop, was arrested by a nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT). Police said the arrest followed the examination of cash transactions involving him and the establishment. An officer at Kovalam police station said Anuroop did not own the spa. Following the arrest, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor V V Rajesh suspended him, according to the report.
The case began after the girl’s maternal aunt, who had raised her, filed a missing-person complaint on September 21. After the girl was located, she disclosed during counselling that she had allegedly 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. Police said a zero FIR was registered in connection with that allegation and forwarded to the concerned police station in Chennai.
The investigation has also extended to Andhra Pradesh. The girl’s maternal aunt and her husband went missing after the case came to light, police said. They were traced to their residence in Palasamudram in Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Sathya Sai district and taken into custody 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 been raised by her maternal aunt. The details have raised questions about the safeguards available to minors who move through informal workplaces and commercial establishments across state borders. The investigation, however, remains focused on establishing the circumstances surrounding the alleged abuse and the role of those arrested.
The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has separately 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.
The reports sought by the child rights commission are expected to address the police investigation, the municipal administration’s response and the child-protection authorities’ handling of the matter. The SIT’s investigation and the proceedings against the arrested individuals will determine the next steps in the case.
