Kanyakumari: Government hostel cook held for sexually abusing boys

Kanyakumari: The cook in a government adidravida hostel for boys was arrested and search launched for his absconding assistant following complaints from nine of the 21 inmates that he had sexually abused them for the last three months and threatened to kill if they spoke out.

Cook Vishwambaran would get drunk at night and force the boys in the age group of 8-13 to engage in oral and penetrative sex. He would dance naked and sing abusive songs. And he would threaten the kids he would kill them if they spoke out, police said.

The targeted kids lived on the ground floor where the 'seniors' had their quarters on the first floor of the government hostel, which catered to the SC/ST students studying in nearby government schools. The crime came to light by chance when nine students in a school failed to take their homework notebooks to the class recently and when asked, they told the teacher that their cook had sold their books for money to buy his booze. Probed further, the kids spilled out their horrid tale of sexual abuse and intimidation.

A complaint was drafted and the school headmistress sternly warned the cook, who reacted by beating one of the boys later with a large spoon resulting in bleeding injury on the forehead. After this, the school reported the matter to the district collector Sajjan Singh R Chavan, who directed the district child welfare officer to probe the matter and record the charges.

"It was a shocking situation. The children were traumatised by the long suffering at the hands of that cook. His assistant Wilson was a silent spectator.

Vishwambaran has now been arrested while Wilson has gone missing", collector Chavan told Deccan Chronicle.

He said he had ordered elaborate initiatives to ensure that such abuse did not happen in government hostels and the inmates were assured of safe stay and secure environment.

"There are about 30 hostels for adi-dravida and backward class students in Kanyakumari. The collector has asked us to form teams to inspect all these hostels and ensure they are in proper condition and the inmates are all well taken care of", said district child protection officer S. Kumuda. "We will now have complaint boxes in all the hostels, regular parent meetings and also medical examination for the inmates, besides counseling by experts. We will not let another such tragedy to happen again".

Meanwhile, the nine traumatised kids are bracing themselves to go through their medical tests and counseling sessions, besides all the embarrassing explaining to their families of poor dalits.