After 25 long years, the prime accused in the infamous Vithura sex racket case, has been found guilty by a special court in Kerala. The case pertains to the abduction of a girl by luring her with a job offer and pushing her into forced sex work. The girl from Vithura near Thiruvananthapuram was raped by several people between November 1995 and May 1996.
On Thursday, the Additional District Sessions Court in Kottayam district found Kollam native 52-year-old Suresh, who reportedly also goes by the name Shamsudeen Muhammad Shajahan, guilty in one of the cases registered against him in connection with the rape and sale of the girl. The Additional District Sessions Court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Friday.
While multiple reports have cited the girl to have been a minor during the time of the incident, a section of reports stated that the court is yet to finally ascertain the same. According to reports, the prosecution stated that the survivor was not 18-years old but the defence claimed that she was 19-years old during the time of the incident.
The crime surfaced when the survivor was nabbed by police along with another accused in the case in July 1996. Following a probe, it was revealed that she was abducted and was forced into sex work. According to The News Indian Express, Suresh was found guilty under sections 344 (Wrongful confinement for ten or more days) and 372 (Selling minor for purposes of prostitution) of the Indian Penal Code and other sections of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA).
Soon after the incident in 1996, Suresh had gone absconding but surrendered before the court after several years in 2014, following the acquittal of the other accused in the case that year. He again absconded during the trial of the case, and in 2019 was nabbed by the Crime Branch wing of the Kerala police from Hyderabad. The court had declared him a fugitive in several cases registered against him in connection with the case.
As per a Malayala Manorama report, the key accused had introduced himself to the survivor taking the name Suresh. But during the trial of the case, though he stated to court that his name is Shamsudeen Muhammad Shajahan, court reportedly did not consider the same. Reportedly, 36 people who were initially accused in the case were acquitted by the trial court as the survivor could not identify many of them.