The whole shocking story only came out in 2024. One of the victims saw the coach at a girls' cricket tournament in Thiruvananthapuram, panicked, and raised an alarm. This happened years after the abuse.
Thiruvananthapuram: A fast-track special court has found a cricket coach guilty in a second case of sexually assaulting a student who came to him for training. The coach, M. Manu, who is 40 years old and a resident of Vallakkadavu Sreevaraham, will be sentenced tomorrow by Judge Anju Meera Birla.
The girl had joined a prominent cricket coaching centre in Thiruvananthapuram back in 2018. After a few days, the coach started taking her to the gym and different bathrooms, pretending it was for special training, and then sexually assaulted her.
He didn't stop there. The coach also took nude photos and videos of the girl. In a truly twisted move, he threatened another victim and forced her to take a nude video of this girl. When the girl refused to give in to his demands, he stopped coaching her properly. Because of this, she had to leave and find another coaching centre in 2019. She kept quiet all this time because he had threatened to destroy her cricket career if she ever told anyone.
It turns out, he had abused five other girls in a similar way. Deeply disturbed, they too left the centre and went elsewhere for coaching. They were also too scared of the coach to report the incidents.
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The whole matter finally came to light in 2024. One of the victims, who was in Thiruvananthapuram for a girls' cricket tournament, saw the coach after many years. She panicked and created a scene, which brought the entire history of abuse out into the open. Seeing her speak up gave the other victims the courage to file their own complaints.
Following this, a total of six cases were registered against the coach. The trials for four of these cases have been completed. Just last month, the same court had sentenced him to six years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹24,000 in one of the other cases.
In this second case, Manu has also been found guilty of attempted rape. The prosecution was represented by Special Public Prosecutor Adv. R.S. Vijay Mohan.
In a related development, the Human Rights Commission recently stepped in and ordered that only female coaches should be appointed to train women and girls in cricket.
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