POCSO accused, out on bail, kidnaps survivor; Kasaragod case raises questions over 7 years of abuse

Kasaragod: A 23-year-old woman says she was lured into a relationship with a 24-year-old man when she was 16 and began living with him. A year later, at 17, she gave birth to their son. Over the past seven years, she alleges that she was repeatedly assaulted, suffered serious injuries including hearing loss in one ear, and at one point attempted to take her own life.

She eventually walked out of the relationship and filed a POCSO case against the man, now 31, in July. Police arrested Sabid C S, who identifies himself as a reel creator on social media, and he was remanded to judicial custody.

Now, while out on bail, Sabid and his younger brother Thahir allegedly assaulted and abducted the woman. The woman told police that she was having juice at a shop near Kasaragod town late Friday night, when the two brothers and another person arrived in a car. She alleged Sabid smashed a glass on her head before they dragged her into a car and sped away.

Police later rescued the young woman from his house at Chattanchal in Chemnad panchayat, registered a second case against Sabid and booked him and Thahir for assault with a weapon, criminal intimidation and kidnapping.

Vidhyanagar Police said the alleged attack was linked to the woman's refusal to withdraw the POCSO case she had filed against Sabid. The police had booked him under Sections 5 and 6 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for repeated aggravated penetrative sexual assault and impregnating a child.
Speaking to Onmanorama, the woman said she had approached the police to get his bail in the POCSO case cancelled.

Social, institutional failure?
The woman was the fourth of six children born to her parents. She dropped out in Class 10. She met Sabid in 2019, when she was 16. They eventually moved in together after falling in love. "I was young and didn't have the maturity to understand what I was doing. If I had known better, I would never have got into this situation," she said.

She became pregnant during the relationship and gave birth to a son in October 2020. The woman alleged that the man physically assaulted her repeatedly during their years together, including during her pregnancy.

She has told police that she initially believed he would marry her after she turned 18. But the marriage did not take place. "Seeing my miserable condition, my family began accepting me back. I used to stay alternately at my house and his house," she said.

During this period, she went to Dubai and worked in a mall, leaving her son with her mother. Sabid also went to Dubai separately for a job. She said she returned to stay with her son and started taking up modelling assignments to support her family.

Sabid returned to Kerala in May, she said. "However, he again assaulted me and threatened to kill me." That's when she walked out of his house and approached the police with a POCSO case.