Thiruvananthapuram: A Kerala Police team has left for Bengaluru in search for former cleric Shafeeq Al Qasimi who allegedly sexually assaulted a minor girl. Qasimi went absconding after a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case was filed against him.
His brother, Naushad from Perumbavoor, too has gone missing, though the police could arrest another sibling Al Ameen on Saturday.
His brothers already in custody have given contradicting statements on Qasimi’s presence in Bangalore.
Al Ameen, taken into custody Saturday from Thrippunithura, said Al Qasimi went to Bangalore two days ago. Two other brothers, Ansari and Shaji, have said he has not left Kerala, but hiding in Ernakulam.
The brothers had lied about the vehicle in which the assault happened. They said it was discarded in Perumbavoor, but it was found from Vytilla in Ernakulam.
A team under Nedumangad DySP will question the three brothers in custody together to ascertain truth. Naushad’s disappearance has led the police to believe he could be hiding with Qasimi.
The manhunt for the absconders has been intensified.
The former Imam was booked on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at Vithura near here. Al Qasimi, who was the former Imam of a village mosque at Tholicode, Vithura.
The case under the POCSO Act was registered against him based on the mosque committee's statement which claimed Qasimi had lured the girl to an isolated forest area and sexually assaulted her last week.
The committee suspended him from the Kozhikode Muslim Jama-ath after it came to know about the crime.
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