CPM leader held in Paravoor sex scam

KOCHI: In a major development in the Paravoor sex scandal case, a CPM leader was arrested on Friday for allegedly abusing the girl.CPM Mazhuvannoor local committee secretary Thomas Varghese, 42, was arrested by the Crime Branch team probing the case.The CPM district secretariat which met on Friday decided to expel Thomas, who hails from Muvattupuzha, from the party for immoral conduct.Meanwhile, senior officials said that the probe team would line out the entire list of over 100 accused, who include prominent personalities and government officials, in the next two weeks. According to Crime Branch Superintendent S Surendran, the five squads that had fanned out to various places in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka would present the list of accused in the coming days."The teams will try to nab those who have gone underground in connection with the case. We have arrested 31 persons so far. The remaining persons will also be nabbed soon," he said.The police said the team had collected details about certain agents, who took the girl to various places. "The agents need to be arrested to collect information about some suspects. We suspect that two agents are women." The investigation team also took one of the main accused in the case identified as Manikandan, a Tamil Nadubased PWD contractor, to Kanyakumari as part of collecting evidence. The police suspect the involvement of a few Tamil Nadubased police personnel in the case after Manikandan made certain submissions before the probe team.The sexual abuse of the 14yearold girl came to light three months ago after her mother lodged a complaint before the police submitting that her husband had forcibly taken the daughter to prostitution.Based on the submissions made by the girl and the mother, the police registered a case.Though the police were able to arrest 29 persons including the girl's father and mother, the government handed over the investigation to the Crime Branch after there were allegations that the police were trying to help a few highprofile persons belonging to the film industry.