Prakash Samaga By

Express News Service

UDUPI: A chilling crime has left Udupi district in shock. A journalist with a local newspaper was arrested last week for sexually abusing 21 young boys, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Chandra Hemmady, 40, a resident of Hemmady in Kundapur, allegedly sexually abused boys in the age group of 10 to 15, over the past five years. He has been a journalist for over 10 years with various newspaper organisations. Chandra is married and has a daughter.

His misdeeds would have gone unnoticed if not for a 14-year-old boy. The lad reported the trauma he went through during a counselling session at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, last week. The survivor, studying in Class 8, was mentally disturbed from many days and there was a discernible change in his behaviour. When his parents took him for counselling to Kasturba Hospital in Manipal, the boy revealed that he had been sodomized by Chandra Hemmady a few days earlier.

He also revealed that many of his friends too had faced abuse from Hemmady. The doctor immediately informed SP Laxman B Nimbargi, and Chandra Hemmady was arrested on November 29 by Byndoor police.

Hemmady, on the pretext of rural reporting for his newspaper, would meet people and promise to solve their problems by writing about them. Unsuspecting parents would send their sons with Hemmady who convinced them that he would show the boys the interiors of the district. Instead, he would lead them into secluded areas and sodomize them, sometimes at knife-point. Additional SP Kumara Chandra said probe is on to know if he has abused more boys.

SINCE his arrest on November 29, complaints alleging that their sons had been similarly abused by Chandra Hemmady, have been pouring in from parents from across the district.As on Monday, a total of 21 cases were registered against him under the Pocso Act. Udupi SP Laxman Nimbargi told

reporters on Monday that the arrested journalist also visited schools and sought permission from teachers to allow him to teach singing to kids.

Public prosecutor Vijaya Vasu Poojari told reporters that 21 cases against the same individual under the Pocso Act is a first. Hemmady has not applied for bail so far. In all, 16 cases were registered against him in Byndoor police station, one in Kollur station, three in Gangolli station and one in Kundapur Rural police station.After three days in custody, he was produced before the Udupi Court on Monday. The court remanded him in judicial custody till December 17.