Late-night good trucks, theft, and atrocities: Lesser-known side of Kazhakkoottam

Rape news is now such a daily occurrence in tabloids that it fails to evoke shock in Keralites. However, the Kazhakkoottam molestation case managed to send shockwaves to the neighborhood and localities in Thiruvananthapuram. A lorry driver sneaking into a hostel in the posh IT locality of Kazhakkoottam and molesting an employee was indeed scary and previously thought impossible. A Madurai native was arrested in the incident within hours, only due to the deft moves taken by the police.

It is reported that the accused, who was sauntering in the locality with the intention to steal valuables, entered inside the room after he found the door unlocked. He then went ahead with molesting the woman after forcibly closing her mouth with his hands. Following the complaint of the hostel authorities, a special investigation team formed under the leadership of Asst. Commissioner P. Anilkumar searched for the accused and arrested him in Madurai. The accused was arrested quickly in an incident that garnered a lot of media attention. The investigation team deserves praise.

The fact that a crime of this magnitude happened in Kazhakkoottam but not in any rural remote precincts of the city is still leaving many unsettled. This incident also cleaved open the inefficiency of the police and the government. Of the more than 75,000 employees working in about 500 companies in Technopark, 45 percent are women. Ninety percent of them live in hostels in the nearby areas. There are duty shifts that end in the middle of the night and early in the morning. Yet, it is a shame that there is no police help cell, emergency services for women, or proper police patrolling on the highway in this area.

The women's help desk that used to operate at the main gate of Technopark was closed due to a shortage of officers! Since the police jeep could not get the right amount of money to fuel it with diesel, patrolling was also stopped. The Kazhakkoottam area is a night base for goods trucks coming from other states. Such places often become the center of all kinds of atrocities, including theft, extortion, and immorality.

Steps to ensure women's safety, such as starting a police station centered around Technopark, evacuating the lorry depot from this area, declaring this area as a high-security zone, and making night patrolling more efficient, should not be delayed any longer.