A Mumbai sessions court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Binoy Kodiyeri (37), son of Kerala State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in an alleged rape case against him.
Mr. Binoy has to pay ₹25,000 as personal bond and one or two sureties in a similar amount. Justice M.H. Shaikh directed Mr. Binoy to be present before the Oshiwara police station on every Monday for a month between 10am and 1pm. The anticipatory conditions were: Mr. Binoy shall not threaten the prosecution witnesses and not tamper with prosecution evidence. He will not leave the country without the prior permission of the trial court. He shall attend investigation whenever the investigation officer calls him for DNA purposes.
The complainant, a former bar dancer (33), had deposed that Mr. Binoy could harm her and her child if accorded bail. She also posited that Mr. Binoy was the son of a powerful politician, a former State Home Minister, whose party is in power in Kerala.
Mr. Binoy’s lawyer Ashok Gupte had vehemently opposed the claims of the complainant and alleged that the “trumped-up case” was the fallout of a failed attempt by the complainant to blackmail him.
The woman had accused Mr. Binoy of cheating her into a long-term connubial relationship by promising marriage. She had also claimed that they had a child from the union and that Mr. Binoy had abandoned both of them in 2018 and pleaded inability to provide maintenance.
The police had opposed Mr. Binoy’s anticipatory bail on the ground that they required his custody for questioning and also to conduct a DNA test to verify whether he was the biological parent of the complainant’s child. The prosecution alleged that he had not heeded to its summons, remained non-cooperative and incommunicado and his whereabouts were unknown.
