Udupi: A stringer of a vernacular newspaper has landed in the police net for sexually assaulting 21 children, and the police are investigating whether he was involved in any more cases.
The accused, Chandra K. Hemmadi, has been sent to judicial custody for 15 days for sexually assaulting 21 minor boys! Police have filed cases under IPC Section 377 and POCSO Column 4, 6 and 8 against him in various police stations in Kundapur and Byndoor Taluks of Udupi district.
The police investigation revealed that Chandra had sexually assaulted only boys, while no case of a female victim has come to light till now. However the police trying to find if there are any unreported incidents.
The crime came to light when one of the boys, who had accompanied Chandra, started behaving unusually. He was taken to a private hospital where the doctors and counselors found that he had been sexually assaulted. The parents then came to know that Chandra had sexually assaulted the boy.
Meanwhile other children and parents too complained of similar sexual assault by him on their children. Of the total 21 cases, 16 were filed at Byndoor, three in Gangolli and one each in Kundapur and Kollur police stations.
According to police, Chandra also used to teach singing to school children. He used to visit schools and volunteer to teach songs. He would click their photos and get the news published in the newspapers.
Police said that Chandra also used to go to schools in rural areas and promise them to highlight their problems in newspapers. After he got some stories published, it boosted his standing among teachers and parents.
He would note the addresses of some of the children in rural areas and visit their house, asking the parents to send their wards with him to provide information about some road, bridge or a place to write news stories.
Sometimes if he found any minor school boy walking, he would take them in his bike under the pretext of collecting information about some place.
Chandra used take his victims to secluded places and sexually assault them. If they opposed he would threaten them by brandishing knife. He used to frighten them to silence.
