Kochi: More girls have approached police in Kochi to lodge unsavoury experiences at No. 18 Hotel, whose owners Roy Vayalat and Saiju Thankachan are booked along with Kozhikode woman Anjali Rimadevi in connection with the molestation of minors at the hotel. All three have been charged under POCSO.
Anjali owns a business unit in Kozhikode and as perversions of victims showing up lately, she looked out for minor daughters of her staff who might have modelling or acting interests.
Fully trusted by the parents, Anjali would then fetch these minors promising the parents to find them the break they needed in their modelling career. Once in Kochi, she drove the girls straight to drug parties in full swing at No. 18 Hotel and subsequently were subject to inappropriate assaults. Among the victims, the parent of one gave testimony instead of the girl, owing to the trauma the victim was still under following an encounter with the accused men at the hotel.
Police stumbled upon molestation cases while investigating the deaths of beauty pageant winners Ansi Kabeer and Anjana Shajan, who were killed in a car crash on 31 October, after the accused Saiju tailed their vehicle in a high-speed chase. Saiju also has a history of cases in drug deals pending against him.