Following the complaint of a minor girl, Thalasseri police have registered a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) case against ED Joseph, who is the Chairman of the Kannur Child Welfare Committee. The police have started an investigation and they will record the testimony of the victim tomorrow. The Child Rights’ Commission has sought the report from the police as well as the CWC in regards to the case, and they have filed a case suo moto. The Child Rights’ Commission Chairman Manoj Kumar has informed that they would form a full panel to decide on further actions.
The minor, who is reportedly a victim in another sexual offence, had told the magistrate via a confidential submission, that Joseph had mistreated her during the counselling session. On October 21, authorities had brought the child to the Kannur CWC for a counselling session. She is a victim of another POCSO case registered with the Kannur Kudiyanmala police. The minor had said that during the course of the counselling the counsellor had used derogatory language and sexually explicit words to talk to her.
However, ED Joseph has dismissed the allegation as baseless. Speaking to media, he claimed that he had not abused the girl, instead sat down with female counsellors and spoke with her about her experience. He stated that he had tried to find out whether there was any sexual intercourse, and whether “there is a deliberate effort to implicate him in the case”. Joseph observed that such complaints would affect the working of the Child Welfare Committee.
Meanwhile, Kerala does have a history of assigning problematic individuals as the Chairman of CWC. A while back, N Rajesh was, for a while, the Chairman of Palakkad CWC. He is famous for having appeared for one of the accused in the Walayar rape-murder case, where two sisters were raped and killed in a thatched hut close to their home. The issue had received widespread criticism.
