Kerala police officer booked for committing unnatural sex with POCSO accused

The fresh case, the official said, was registered Wednesday after the complainant, a 27-year-old man accused of raping a minor in October this year, alleged Sanal had promised not to arrest him in the rape case if he met his sexual demands. Sanal was then posted as the Station House Officer of the police station where the POCSO ( Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) case was registered.

According to the official, Sanal took the POCSO accused man to his official quarters and allegedly sexually abused him. The officer, however, did not drop the POCSO charges as promised and the man was then arrested and sent to judicial custody. The man filed the complaint against the police officer after he was recently released on bail.

Inspector Sanal has been under suspension since November 19 after he was found to have allegedly taken bribe from the owner of a resort where the police had seized drugs during a raid on October 24. The officer had allegedly dropped the charges against the resort owner and proceeded only against the other accused in the drug case.

Last month, a police officer in Wayanad district was booked on charges of misbehaving with a minor girl, the victim in a POCSO case, while she was being taken to the nearby Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu for gathering evidence. Additional sub inspector T G Babu was also placed under suspension.

Last week, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the state Assembly that 828 criminal cases have been registered against police officials since 2016. Only eight of the police officials who have been booked have been terminated from service, he added.