KOZHIKODE, NOV 9: Even as the contours of an octopus-like sex racket continue to stun people here, the case of over dozens of missing male children from Kozhikode and Malappuram district remains shrouded in mystery.

What is even more puzzling is that the entire episode has taken a turn for the worse with more than 25 teenaged boys reported missing from various places in the two districts in the last couple of months.

Allegations are abound that a gang of pederasts are abducting children by luring them into their dragnet by offering ice-cream or cinema tickets. The modus operandi continues to be the same. Lure the children, take them to distant hotels and lodges and sexually exploit them for days or weeks together after drugging them. The gruesome effect that it leaves on the child's mind is devastating, forcing him finally to turn to peddling drugs.

However, the police have a different version and dismiss the possibility of an organised mafia working behind these activities. They say that in the last five years they have traced 300 missing children and brought them back to their parents.

Ironically, neither the children who returned home after their mysterious disappearance from their villages nor their parents were willing to talk about the circumstances under which they were lured by their captors.

A shocking case is that of 14-year-old Sree Roop, a standard X student of the REC High School at Chathamangalam. Last seen by his parents on February 5, 1997, Sree Roop never returned home, and all the efforts of his father Balakrishnan Nair of Pilasseri to locate him proved futile. Balakrishnan Nair, who is also the convener of the committee of the parents of the missing children, had even lodged a complaint with the Kunnamangalam police the next day his son was found missing.

Vettichira Moidu, secretary of the Kerala Samskarika Sabha, who staged a fast before the office of the Inspector-General of Police demanding action to trace the missing children and arrest the culprits says, the children were being exploited mainly for homosexual activities after drugging them.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.