The term criminal conjures up visions of sneering men with rippling muscles, strapping tall with multiple scars on the face. But nowadays in Kerala such men are usually at the receiving end of criminal activity and the criminals are ‘tender’ woman in their early twenties hardly anything to go by way of physique. One sided laws like the dowry laws and domestic violence act were made with the sole assumption that woman can do no wrong. Is that so…? Read along to find out.

Take a flash back to a couple of years and you have a wisp of woman by the name of Shobha John who was into blackmail by abducting the thantri of a renowned shrine and forcibly taking his photographs in compromising positions with a consenting woman.
The bespectacled, lean lady catapulted to fame with the infamous Thanthri case. But her real claim to fame rests in one another title “ First lady in the state to be arrested under the Goonda act”. She is said to be running a network of ‘business’ from massage parlors to real estate allegedly as a front to various illicit activities. Behind the curtains, she is said to have been managing a dreaded world of crime, ranging from flesh trade to contract killing. Venues and ventures may change, but the USP of her scheme of things remains unchanged, that is blackmailing.

Take the Thanthri case for example. Not knowing it to be a perfectly laid trap, Thanthi Kandhararu Mohnaru enters into one of the flats in Link Laxman apartments of Valanjambalam, Cochin where a sex worker has been waiting for him, arranged by his trusted friend Sobha john. While Thanthri and his partner are on bed a group of people allegedly barged in to the room and took photographs. They demand a huge amount for not making the photographs public, to which, at the insistence of Shobha, the thanthri agrees first. Had it not been for the crucial decision of the Thanthri to retain his wealth at the cost of his name and fame the case wouldn’t have reached public domain.

After the Thanthri episode it took three years for her name to surface again in news indicating that all the time she had not been sitting idle. This time she was booked in connection with the murder of a youth named Althara Vineesh. The murder was committed by a gang led by Keppan Ani. Both the murdered and murderer were notorious gangsters, with the latter being right hand man of Shobha. Investigations proved Shobha’s role in the conspiracy and giving shelter to the accused persons.

After a gap of 5 years Shobha is back. This time she finds herself in the wanted list in connection with a sex racket case. The case is now famous as Varappuzha sex racket case. Further, investigators are believed to have got links that may connect her to another case of the same kind , the Paravoor case.

Bhaskara Karnavar, a U.S. returnee, was found murdered in his house at Cheriyanadu in Chengannur on the morning of November 8, 2009. Sherin, an erstwhile college beauty, wife of Karanavar’s second son Binu, was arrested within two days while the other three, who were allegedly friends of Sherin and who were contracted to kill Karanavar after he cancelled a property will in Sherin’s name, were nabbed from Karnataka. Sherin, was given bail by the High Court, but was shifted to jail on account of her conviction. She had conspired to kill her father in law for his wealth. It seems Karnavar had favoured her earlier but on seeing her loose way of life, had decided to take her out of his will while bequeathing his property.

Recently, a beautiful college going girl, Mithra Susan Abraham had turned almost into a murderer when she lured a youth with womanly promises into the hands of a supari gang commonly called quotation gangs. The back ground of the case is as follows. A youth C Liju, was brutally assaulted in Ranni, Pathanamthitta district on August 5 by a gang. The probe into this incident has taken the police to the St Joseph College Campus, where they uncovered the involvement of a 20 year old girl and two boys, her classmates, in the conspiracy. Police said that, Mithra Susan Abraham, 3rd year Travel and Tourism student of St Thomas College, Ranni allegedly lured Liju, into the trap of a supari Gang. Liju was critically injured but survived

More recently, there was a case of a woman who went into a jewellery shop in Alapuzha under the pretext of buying jewellery for her marriage. After selecting a sizable amount of gold, she took it for billing. When no one was noticing, she snatched the jewellery box and ran out. The alert security guard, chased and with the help of passers-by caught her.

A bank robbery this. The main accused in the bank robbery in Chelambara in Kerala, where the robbers decamped with jewellery of about 80 million indian rupees, is a woman. The four member gang cut a hole in the strong room floor of the Gramin bank after taking for rent the ground floor directly under the bank’s strong room. This is the biggest robbery in terms of value in Kerala.

And for sex you cannot beat this. A fourteen year girl was subjected to rape and prostitution by none other than the girls’s father and mother. Infamously known as the Paravur Case, the father mother duo was taking the child around the country and subjecting her to sex with more than hundred people. The father was convicted and sentenced to ten years life imprisonment and the mother was sentenced to seven years life imprisonment.

Kiliroor sex scandal case is another case where a teenage girl Shari was taken to different places in kerala and was allegedly sexually exploited by “influential persons”. What is more shocking is that the main accused Latha Nair, is Shari’s own mother’s sister.

Ice Cream Parlour Sex Case is a case where one Sreedevi was running an ice cream parlour in Calicut, Kerala and was a regular supplier of girls to influential people. What gave this case notoriety was that it was alleged that prominent politicians were involved in the case. However, the main accused in this also is a woman.

The main accused in the case of woman trafficking using fake passport to the gulf and forced into sex trade there is a woman, Lissy Sajan of Trichur. Lissy had a flourishing flesh trade in the gulf and evaded arrest several times but was arrested from near the Aluva Bus Station recently.

Here is a case involving fraud. The special CBI court has awarded 3 years imprisonment and Rs 30,000 fine to the accused in the SSLC question paper leak case. Bindu Vijayan of Vanchiyur, Trivandrum and Sindhu Surendran of Chennai were given jail terms. The court had found them guilty on charges of criminal conspiracy, stealing and for keeping the stolen things under position.
Now the recent two developments can even beat a slease writers best imagination. Recently, kerala Assembly saw tumultuous scenes after the arrest of a woman, Saritha.S.Nair in a cheating case. It came to light that this woman with one Biju had swindled crores of rupees from very influential people with promises of share in installations of solar equipments and farms. The duo had the blessings of staff in the chief minister’s office , hence the ruckus in the assembly. The opposition claim is that this was all made possible because of the ‘involvement’ of this beautiful lady with people who mattered in the government. Immediately the involvement of a M.L.A of the opposition in sordid sex activities was brought to light presumably by the ruling party. The clip of the MLA fornicating with the complaintant woman was telecast by different channels. What was shameful and shocking was that, this clip was shot by this woman herself keeping a hidden webcam. The woman in her complaint to the police had deposed that the MLA’s son had sex with her several times promising marriage. When she came to know that his son would not marry her, she induced/seduced his father i.e the MLA into having sex with her and videographing the entire episode to get even with his son who incidentally was four years younger to her. She had wanted to get him trapped into getting arrested using the controversial provisions of the anti rape law knowing all too well that the MLA could be arrested on her complaint alone. All said and done, a sad day for womanhood.

It is to be noted at this juncture that all of these women are normal middle class woman and none of them are poor. All of them are well educated too. We should reflect at this moment on the enormity of abuse capable at the hands of womenfolk in this country making use of the various woman centred laws . Please reflect that these self same woman detailed above are also given protection under the gender biased and one sided laws. These laws were formulated under the express belief that woman will never be able to do any wrong. How about these woman..? Where they compelled to do any of these acts..under threat, poverty etc…? The conclusion should be – there are born criminals among woman too and their numbers are increasing day by day as woman are increasingly not tied to families and their homes.

Now reflect for a moment… If any one of them were wedded to your son and files a case of false Dowry Harassment or false Domestic Violence or false case of rape against your son, will your son stand a chance. No section in IPC or CrPC gives redressal for abuse of such laws. Please reflect on this. Do we require such draconian and one sided laws in our modern society. Please remember that such laws have no redressal mechanism for the accused. So, let us unite and fight these draconian and evil laws and also those who frame them.
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