The Kerala High Court on Monday ordered the State Police Chief (SPC) to conduct an inquiry into the affidavit signed by the survivor in the Pangod rape case and produced by the accused junior health inspector in which she said she was not raped by him.
The affidavit was produced by the accused when his anticipatory bail petition came up for hearing.
In the notary attested affidavit, the survivor deposed that there was no such incident and it was a consensual sexual intercourse. It was stated in the affidavit that she gave her earlier statement to the police because of the pressure from her relatives. The allegation was that the health inspector had raped the woman when she had approached him for getting a COVID-19 negative certificate .
Bail granted
Justice P.V Kunhikrishnan issued the directives while granting bail to Pradeep Kumar of Kollam.
The court directed the State Police Chief to depute a senior officer to probe into the affidavit and file a report based on the inquiry before the High Court Registrar General within three months.
The court observed that petitioner was working as a junior health inspector. Hundreds of health workers were working in the State to take care of those affected by the pandemic. In such a situation, this particular incident gave a black mark on the health workers of the State. It even affected their morale. Now, the survivor was coming before the court and saying that it was consensual act and there was no forceful sex as stated in her earlier statement.
The court added that based on a false complaint, a person had been in jail for 77 days. The court could not shut its eye to such situations, it said.
