Women crusade against sex racketeer Suhail Thangal finally wins

KOZHIKODE: As their year-long crusade against an inter-state sex racketeer resulted in his arrest on Thursday, the five-member team of advocates from Punarjani Charitable Trust in Kozhikode is planning to take up similar such cases. The team which feels the arrest of Suhail Thangal who was an accused in six major sex abuse cases strengthens their belief in the legal system and gives them the energy to take up the cudgels against others with similar criminal background.

The lawyers said they will now move the authorities seeking early action against a child abuser from the juvenile home campus and an accused in multiple sexual abuse cases against whom the city police had issued a lookout notice earlier. “That they roam free despite being history-sheeters indicates the way influential culprits can survive in a system of corruption,” P.P. Sapna, the lawyer who spearheaded the campaign and moved the High Court thrice in the same case, said.

“Thangal spent not even a month in the prison despite being convicted,” she said. “He was out on a bail. We still need to see how effective the charges are.” The team has moved the case of the child abuser in the Supreme Court which is expected to take up the case on August 10.

It is to be recalled that DC had reported earlier how a male employee accused in sexual abuse charges by the inmates of a girls’ home has been appointed on the same campus of Social Justice Department at Vellimadukunnu, Kozhikode. He enjoys free access to all institutions including those in which the girls complained against him also live.     

His appointment order itself says that there was a complaint against the electrician-cum-pump operator at Children’s Home for boys that he had sexually abused some girls at girls’ home. The order further says that there is a criminal case against him for abuse of girl inmates.