The police have served a notice on solar fraud case accused Saritha S. Nair under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code to record her statement in connection with her complaint that A.P. Abdullakutty, Kannur MLA, had raped her at a government-owned hotel here last year.
As the law mandates, an investigation team, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Ajeetha Begum and Assistant Commissioner of Police K.E. Baiju, is scheduled to visit her at a time and location of her convenience. The police will video record the proceedings. The law enforcement registered a case also on the basis of various High Court and Supreme Court judgments that belated complaint of rape from a woman should not be a ground for non-registration of case. “In cases of rape, delay in lodging complaint is not at all fatal to prosecution,” was the legal opinion the police received in the case. However, the investigators may question her on her reported statement in the media that the MLA had asked her to visit him at the hotel and that she had turned down his request after she found his conversation offensive and sexually harassing.
The police would verify the guest register at the hotel and also its visitors’ ledgers. They would also ask whether the alleged victim and the accused in the case were willing to subject themselves to a polygraph lie detector test.
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