Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s high-decibel campaign against sex offenders and his promise to handcuff them if given another term is just “sound and fury”, if one goes by his record in the last five years. In 2006, he had raised the same slogan: “Give me a chance to catch sex offenders who have been using girls and dumping their bodies in canals.”
He had particularly flaunted these cases — the ice cream parlour scandal in which the Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty was facing allegations, the Kiliroor-Kaviyur sex racket involving the death of six victims, the Kottiyam Shiny murder case and the Thoppumpady and Vayalathur (Malappuram) sexual harassment cases.
His major commitment was to set up sessions’ courts in districts headed by woman judges, to try sexual harassment cases and ensure the care and protection of victims. “Nothing happened on this front during the last five years,” says Shajahan, secretary to Acuthanandan while he was the Opposition leader in 2001-06.
Mr Oommen Chandy’s government in 2006 had turned over to the CBI the Kiliroor-Kaviyur cases. The cases are still in courts. The Kottiyam, Thoppumpady and Vayalthur cases too are at various stages in courts.
The ice cream parlour case too was in a limbo but got resurrected two months back when a TV channel carried out a sting and brought out allegedly incriminating details against Mr Kunhalikutty.