Manu, the accused in POCSO cases
In the last week of May, Bindu* a resident of Thiruvananthapuram, received a call from her daughter, who said, “Manu is coaching a team in the ongoing Pink tournament.” Manu M was the 17-year-old girl’s cricket coach at the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) where she was training until three years ago.
When Bindu asked her what the issue was, her daughter disconnected the call. “A day later, I got a call from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) saying my daughter had filed a complaint of sexual assault against Manu and had to be brought in for counselling. I was shocked and in pain, why didn’t she tell me anything?” Bindu said.
Her daughter, a cricket player, had come to Thiruvananthapuram from Chennai in May to take part in the fourth KCA TCM Pink T20 Challengers tournament. However, she wasn’t expecting to see her abuser still there.
In fact, she was confident that Manu, who had faced charges of sexually assaulting a minor in 2022, would have been fired by the authorities at KCA. She believed that the case was still going on and she did not expect to see Manu again. But to her shock, the KCA had not only failed to sack Manu, but had appointed him as the coach of one of the teams participating in the Pink T20 tournament that started on May 26.
On May 29, she approached the CWC, revealing the details of years of sexual assault. When news of her complaint became public, other survivors who had trained under Manu between 2018 and 2024 came forward and filed complaints against him.
Manu has now been booked in seven cases under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and was arrested in June by the Cantonment police in Thiruvananthapuram.
Systemic failure exposed
The Kerala Cricket Association, which is at the centre of the controversy, is the cricket governing body in the state and is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The money and power that is associated with the game of cricket is enjoyed by the KCA in Kerala.
The Association governs the Kerala cricket team and several clubs under it. Undergoing coaching at the KCA is seen as foundational for the state’s young players, both male and female, who nurse ambitions of making it to the state and national levels.
Manu, the coach who now faces accusations of sexual assault of minors, was also a former KCA player.
The accounts related by the survivors and their parents show that this is not merely the case of a single individual who abused his position to sexually assault children. It also exposes the complicity of KCA, which despite previous complaints against him not only allowed Manu to work in a similar capacity again, but also failed to put in place systems that could prevent further incidents of abuse.
Professional perpetrator who exploited children’s ambition
TNM spoke to the parents of four survivors, all of whom said that Manu had been sexually grooming and manipulating the children training under him for many years. They alleged that he had repeatedly sexually abused the children all the while. However, it was only after the first few complaints came out in June 2024 that many of the children opened up to their families.
The accusations levelled against him show that Manu is a ‘professional perpetrator’ — a sex offender who used his employment to target and sexually abuse the children with whom he worked. He used the children’s passion for the game to exploit their ambitions for his sexual perversion.
“Manu told his girl students, as young as 11 or 12 years old, that there were two ways to succeed in cricket: one was to play extremely well, and the other involved additional methods. My 12-year-old didn’t understand what he meant back then,” one parent said. “In one way or the other, he taught them that cooperating with him would lead to success in cricket,” the parent observed.
“The children who go there are ambitious and passionate,” Bindu said, “He convinced them that these actions are necessary for their success, such as when he tells them to take off their clothes to check their fitness. He convinced these young children that all of it is mandatory.”
The parents said that he also told the young girls they should get “sexually involved with him in order to prevent them from becoming lesbians” and that the abuse was justified in the name of their “better future”.
The parents TNM spoke to also mentioned that the girls were made to believe that if they didn’t cooperate with Manu, their brothers who were also under his coaching would have to face the consequences.
A pattern of grooming
The parents alleged that Manu manipulated young children and used them to groom others. “In every batch, he would single out two girls as his favourites and manipulate them to influence and trap others,” a parent said.
“These ‘favourites’ would be encouraged to take nude pictures of the other girls, talk about sex to them, and do other things. They were groomed and manipulated by him from a very young age,” one parent alleged.
“Manu would speak about sex and related stuff to the girls even when they were practising on the ground. Once, we saw him call a girl aside and talk to her personally while others were playing. It was only after the first complaint was made that we realised he was discussing inappropriate topics, and that it was all part of his grooming tactics,” another parent said.
Saju* another parent whose daughter was sexually abused by Manu, said that he first noticed inappropriate behaviour from the coach during the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown in 2020. His daughter was 16 years old at the time. “Once I saw that my daughter was recording videos of her exercising. When I asked what they were for, she said that the coach had asked them to record videos and send them to him. I immediately said that she should not do it and put a stop to it,” he said.
Bindu also said that Manu used “strange images and objects” to manipulate and scare children. “He showed demonic images to the children to claim that he has special powers. Since these are very young children, they got scared and did not reveal this to anyone,” she added.
KCA remained silent when rules were flouted
The many complaints against Manu that have now been revealed also include the allegation that he took students to a camp in Tenkasi without following due procedure.
“He took two girls with him to Tenkasi in April without a woman coach accompanying them. One of the girls has now filed a complaint against him,” a parent revealed.
“My son was part of the team that visited Tenkasi in March, where there was no proper accommodation or adequate food for the students. Why would he take students to Tenkasi when there are enough grounds here?” the parent questioned, adding, “He must have had other intentions.”
Sexual abuse using ‘guru’ status
Bindu said that it was devastating to read the counselling statements of her daughter. It was in 2018, when the girl was 11 years old, that she joined cricket coaching at KCA. “In 2018 and 2019, he abused her very badly. He took her photos and sexually assaulted her. Then in 2020, the COVID-19 lockdown came. After the lockdown, in 2021, she went back to KCA for coaching, but by then she had started reacting,” Bindu recalled.
The girl started expressing her aversion towards Manu, who would tell Bindu that she did not show him enough respect. “I used to advise her that he should be respected as he is her guru, but she wouldn’t listen to me. Within a few months, we sent her to Bengaluru for better exposure and further coaching,” Bindu said.
Bindu’s daughter later learned that in 2022, a POCSO case had been registered against Manu by a minor from Tamil Nadu who was training under him. However, when she went to KCA for the tournament in May, she wasn’t aware that he had been acquitted in the case after it had been ‘settled out of court’.
The 2022 POCSO case that was ‘settled’
The first POCSO case was registered against Manu in 2022, based on the complaint by a 12-year-old girl hailing from Tamil Nadu.
TNM spoke with Akhil, a former KCA player who supported the survivor and helped her family lodge the complaint in 2022. He used to practise at KCA from mid-2020 to 2022, but left after the incident.
According to Akhil, he first heard about the incident through a friend, after the 12-year-old girl shared her experience about Manu’s misconduct. Manu was their coach at that time. On the following day, another girl aged 10 shared a similar incident with them. They recorded a video statement of these children to send to the police.
The parent of the 10-year-old, however, did not want to file a complaint. “Manu had admitted his guilt at the KCA headquarters in front of her parents. But the child’s father didn’t want to register a complaint. He reasoned that Manu has a family and it was enough to give him a warning,” Akhil said.
Nevertheless, Akhil, along with his friends, moved forward with the 12-year-old’s complaint. They helped the family lodge the complaint. Since the parents of the girl were from Tamil Nadu, it was Akhil who submitted a written complaint at the police station.
On the day that the complaint was registered, the child gave a statement to the magistrate. However, during the court proceedings, the survivor changed her statement, and as a result, the court acquitted Manu.
Akhil alleged that the case was “settled with money”. He also said that the police were not cooperative then.
Manipulation of students, parents to garner support
Unlike the survivors who have come forward with allegations against Manu in the past few weeks, the 12-year-old who filed the POCSO complaint in 2022 did not receive much support from other students and parents. Parents say that this was because Manu had successfully convinced them that the complaint was part of a conspiracy against him in the wake of elections to the KCA.
Priya* who is one of the survivors who filed a complaint against Manu in June, joined KCA for coaching in 2021. Her father Manoj* told TNM that she did not face any bad experiences in the initial months. He also explained how Manu managed to get several students and parents on his side when the first POCSO case was registered in 2022.
“When the first allegations were made against Manu in 2022, he convinced us that they were part of the groupism within the KCA on account of the ongoing elections to the Association. He also claimed that some senior coaches were plotting against him,” Manoj recalled, adding, “Many students in my daughter’s batch were convinced of his innocence. Even my daughter was upset that he faced such allegations. We believed he was a good man.”
The parents later heard that the case was quashed, but many did not know about the ‘settlement’.
More survivors speak now
Manoj said that he did not suspect any abuse even when Manu started denying his son opportunities. “Manu denied opportunities to my son, even though he played really well. But even then, I did not sense there were deeper issues behind it,” he said.
He said that his daughter only spoke to him after Manu was arrested in the first week of June. “When I told her that Manu had been arrested, she was not sad like she had been in 2022. Later, amidst tears, she told me that she had a bad experience at KCA, without going into details. I went to the police station and filed a complaint, and they took her statement. After reading the First Information Report (FIR), I was shocked,” he said.
His daughter told Manoj that everything written in the FIR was true and that she did not wish to talk about it further. The FIR was filed on June 20.
“He took her photos forcefully and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions between 2022 and May 2024. It all happened in the washroom inside the gymnasium,” Manoj said.
“What makes me sadder is that my child was too frightened to talk about it all these years. He manipulated the children, telling them that only by complying with his demands would they have career growth. He also convinced them that their brothers’ careers too depended on their cooperation,” Manoj broke down.
The KCA’s claim of ignorance of the sexual abuse that happened right under their nose for several years is what Saju finds incredulous.
“My daughter told me that the sexual assault often took place in the KCA’s gymnasium after practice on the grounds. During practice, many parents including I would be waiting in our cars parked right outside the nets. That way, we were able to see what the children were doing. I would have never guessed that in the brief time that they were taken inside the building, he was abusing the children,” he said.
His daughter too opened up about the abuse to him after several others spoke up in June. “We discontinued the coaching at KCA after my daughter kept insisting that she did not wish to train under Manu. We then moved her to Bengaluru. She never told me what the issue was, and I assumed it was some other form of harassment or neglect. Never had I thought it would be sexual abuse,” he said.
His daughter told Saju that she had kept the abuse from her parents for so long, fearing how it would affect them. “My wife had a stroke several years back and still needs care. My daughter thought the news would give me a heart attack, and kept it to herself for so long,” he said.
“The abuse continued for years, and yet the KCA is saying that they knew nothing about it. How can one believe their claim?” Saju asked.
No opportunities for children who don’t comply
Anil Gopalan, a parent who has sent both his son and daughter to KCA for coaching, told TNM that Manu had been neglecting his children because his daughter refused to cooperate with him. Anil filed a complaint with the Thiruvananthapuram District Cricket Association in April, stating that Manu had been neglecting his children and denying them opportunities.
“I came to know that the POCSO case against him, which was filed in 2022, was settled out of court. Until then he had convinced us that it was a fake complaint. But when I heard about settlements, I had my doubts. It was his discriminatory behaviour with my children that made me file the complaint,” Anil said.
Since no further action was taken, Anil forwarded the complaint to the KCA in the first week of May. Still, no action was initiated, and Manu continued as the coach. It was only after police complaints started coming in that Anil learned his daughter had resisted Manu’s advances, which was why he treated his children differently.
The abuser’s proximity to power
“Manu is a social menace, but the authorities are indifferent and are washing their hands off the whole issue,” said Saju.
He added that Manu is close to the KCA Secretary Vinod S Kumar. “Manu manages the cricket clubs under the secretary,” he said, clarifying that a significant share of the power of KCA office bearers comes from the several clubs under them. In an earlier report published on July 8, TNM had quoted former KCA secretary Ajith Kumar making the same accusation against Manu and Vinod.
TNM had also reported that the KCA had received complaints regarding Manu bullying girls as early as 2018, but had failed to take action against him. KCA Secretary Vinod had told TNM that when the first complaint against Manu came in 2022, they had asked him to stay away from coaching without salary. But after the court gave him a clean chit, they took him back. Vinod also said that Manu had tendered his resignation in April this year, stating that he had been offered a job in Bengaluru. But in May, he was offered the position of a coach of one of the teams in the Pink tournament.
“If he had left the Association, why was he offered a coaching position for the Pink tournament? Was the KCA sending off this abuser with a golden handshake?” questioned Saju.
Read: Kerala Cricket Assn sat on sexual assault, bullying complaints against coach since 2018
‘A setback for the sport’
According to Saju, the KCA’s laxity in taking action against Manu, the perpetrator of sexual violence against the young female players, will cause a setback for sports itself.
“When they come to know that sexual abusers continue to have a free reign even after several complaints are raised against them, parents will be reluctant to send their daughters for coaching. It will prove to be a setback for the game, and worse, ruin the dreams of young girls wanting to become sportspersons,” he said.
The parents also shared with TNM a thought that has been nagging them ever since their daughters revealed to them details of the abuse they underwent: “I feel guilty, thinking that I could have prevented it if I had been more careful,” said Saju.
*Names changed to protect identity.
With inputs from Haritha Manav.