A new Division Bench of the Kerala High Court will consider the Suryanelli rape case on Monday.
The Bench comprising Justice K.T. Sankaran and Justice M. L. Joseph Francis will consider the case instead of the Special Bench for trying atrocities against women. The appeal filed by the 17 accused against the Special Court order, which convicted them, will be considered by the new Bench. It was following a recent Supreme Court order quashing the Kerala High Court’s order letting all but one accused free in the case that the accused had approached the High Court again. The accused had earlier approached the court seeking to suspend execution of the sentence awarded to them by the Special Court which tried the case. Those who approached the High Court are Cherian, N. Jose, Rajendran Nair, Jacob Stephen, Muhammed Youseph, Sunny George, Jigi, Joseph, Sabu, Varghese, George Kutty, Ashraf, Antony, Babu Mathew, and Thankappan. Meanwhile, Mary alias Ammini of Kuruvilangad, another accused in the case, approached the Kerala High Court seeking to suspend execution of the sentence passed by Additional Session Court of Kottayam.
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Special Correspondent writes from Kottayam: The victim in the Suryanelli sex scandal on Friday filed a complaint before the Chingavanom police seeking registering of a fresh FIR for further investigation in the alleged involvement of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien in the case. Mr. Kurien has been included as the fourth respondent in the complaint, the others being S. Dharmarajan, Jamal and Unnikrishnan who have been named as the first, second, and third respondents. Her complaint is based on the “disclosure” by Dharmarajan that Mr. Kurien had raped her at the Kumily panchayat rest house in a conspiracy hatched by the other three.
While the girl and her lawyers pointed out that the complaint was given under Section 154(1) of the CrPC (information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence) and as such Section 166 (A) (c) of the Indian Penal Code under Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013 was applicable, assistant sub-inspector at the station K,P, Thomas, who accepted the complaint, however, made it clear that since the sub-inspector who was in charge was absent, he could not register the case. After waiting for over an hour, the girl, her parents, and the lawyers left the police station.