The Bharatiya Mahila Morcha State president Shobha Surendran has called upon the Defence Minister A.K.Antony to break silence and make clear his moral stand on the repeated plea of the rape victim’s assertion on Prof. Kurien’s alleged involvement in the infamous Suryanelli case.
Ms. Surendran was inaugurating a march taken out by the Morcha members to the residence of Prof. Kurien at Paduthode near Thiruvalla on Friday, demanding his resignation and arrest following the recent developments in the Suryanelli sex scandal.
The Morcha leader said Prof. Kurien should be subjected to polygraph test and other scientific interrogation. She said the rape victim had asserted in unambiguous terms that Prof. Kurien had sexually harassed her and had conveyed her helplessness to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The Congress president, who had given a patient hearing to the parents of the Delhi girl who was gang-raped, should also show the justice to hear the plea made by the rape victim of Suryanelli that she was sexually harassed by none other than the Deputy Chairman of the Upper House of the Parliament, Ms. Surendran said.
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Ms. Surendran alleged that Prof. Kurien had faced no interrogation in connection with the investigation into the sex scandal as he was enjoying the protection of a `VVIP’. The victim has categorically alleged that she had faced immense pressure from the chief investigating officer too not to press on the alleged involvement of Prof. Kurien in the case. However, she had never retreated from her earlier statement made on Prof. Kurien’s involvement in the case, the Morcha leader said.
Ms. Surendran also said that the partisan stand adopted by Mr. Sibi Mathew, chief investigating officer, to protect Prof. Kurien was a shame to the entire Kerala Police.
She said Mr. Mathew should be removed from his present post of State Chief Information Commissioner without any further delay.
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Seeks CM’s clarification
The Morcha leader said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy should clarify whether he endorsed the Ordinance on sexual assault.
Ms. Surendran has urged Mr. Chandy to order a reinvestigation into Prof. Kurien’s role in the rape case and initiate criminal proceedings against him.
She said the Morcha national president Smriti Irani would register strong protest against Prof. Kurien in the Rajya Sabha.
Prathapachandra Varma, State vice president, Bharatiya Janata Party; Sridevi Thamarakshan, Ramani Vasukkuttan, and Bindu Prasad, Morcha district leaders, also spoke.