Kadinamkulam gang rape: Last remaining suspect arrested

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: District police have arrested the last remaining suspect in the Kadinamkulam gang rape case who was absconding. Noufal, 27, of Pallippuram was caught from the proximity of his wife’s residence at Channankara during the early hours of Sunday.
Kadinamkulam station house officer P V Vinesh Kumar said the arrest of the accused was recorded after the rape survivor and her son, who is the key witness in the case, identified him from a photograph. Police have also seized his autorickshaw, which was allegedly used to abduct the woman and child. Later in the day, he was produced before court and remanded in judicial custody.
The inspector also said police would be filing an application before the court seeking custody of the woman’s husband, friend Rajan along with two other accused, Mansoor and Akbar Shah, for further investigation. Mansoor and Shah are arraigned as the first two accused in the case. There are seven accused in the case.
“We need to probe the conspiracy angle behind the crime as we suspect that the accused had pre-planned the rape,’’ the inspector said. Currently, police are awaiting the result of swab test of the four accused for Covid-19 as part of latest procedures. Police would be filing custody application only if they test negative and it would be safe to secure their custody, the inspector added.
According to police, Noufal had hidden at different places in Kadinamkulam and Varkala regions during the last two days. Police had brought his residence as well as his wife’s residence under surveillance to nab him. At night, he turned up at his wife’s residence as expected following which the cops caught him.
The alleged crime related to the case took place on Thursday night at Vettuthura under Kadinamkulam police station limits. The woman’s husband took her and their two children to his friend’s residence at Vettuthura, from where his friends abducted her along with her toddler son and took her to an abandoned building, where she was allegedly gang-raped in front of her son.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)