Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 11 ( ) Harshitha Attaloori, Inspector General of Police, South Zone, will investigate the child abuse case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in which a 35-year-old woman was arrested and jailed following a complaint by her husband that said their 14-year-old son was allegedly sexually assaulted by her.
The woman is in Attakulangara women's jail.
However proceedings took a curious turn with the relatives and friends of the woman came together and formed an action council which demanded a proper investigation by the police.
The action council leader Vakkom Pradeep, while speaking to , said: "The local police at Kadakkavoor police station was over-enthusiastic to register an FIR and did not take into consideration all aspects of the case. This woman and her husband are estranged and he has remarried without divorcing her and the child had lodged the complaint following immense pressure from this person."
In a related development, the woman's 11-year-old younger son told the media that their father used to beat them up cruelly and his brother was forced to make such a statement by their father.
The couple have three sons and a six-year-old daughter.
The mother of the accused also said her daughter was innocent. "My daughter is innocent and everyone who knows the family does not have an iota of doubt on the same. The case was forced upon her by her estranged husband who had forcibly taken their children and was living in the Middle East with another woman without formally divorcing my daughter".
The state Child welfare committee has refuted the police claim that the committee had sent a report asking for the police to arrest the woman.
Child welfare committee president N Sunanda told : "The committee had not sent any report indicting the woman and we had only provided counseling to the boy".
The Kerala Women's Commission has also intervened in the matter. Commission member Shahida Kamal told journalists, "If the allegations raised by the woman's family are true it's a major issue. If, as alleged by the woman's family and friends, the man had prompted the child to give a false statement, he is liable to be prosecuted under Section 22 of the POCSO Act".
Kamal said that children are becoming mere pawns in fights between parents and in this would lead to mental agony for the child in the long run.
( With inputs from IANS )
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