The Kerala High Court on Thursday quashed the FIR registered against former Minister Jose Thettayil, an Opposition lDF MlA of the Janata Dal (S), for alleged rape. The court also cancelled the charge of rape slapped on the MlA by police on the basis of the complaint of the ‘victim.’
The single-judge bench of Justice P Bhavadasan said rape case was not legally maintainable against the MlA as the police had not been able to present evidences. The complainant said she would approach the Supreme Court against the High Court order even as legal experts pointed out that FIRs in cases of sexual abuse had been quashed by courts in India only rarely. The case pertained to the rape charge levelled against Thettayil, now 63, and his son Adarsh (26) by a 30-year-old woman from the MlA’s constituency. The woman said in her June 23 complaint to the police that both of them had been abusing her sexually for the past two years. She had also presented some video recordings as evidence along with the complaint.
According to her, Thettayil had abused her sexually by promising her that his son would marry her while Adarsh abused her feigning love. She said that she had decided to record her sexual acts with Thettayil using a webcam after he withdrew the marriage offer and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the relationship. Stating that the woman’s claim that Thettayil had had sex with her without her consent was not credible, the judge pointed out that the MlA had reached her flat three times in her car. If a woman called a person into her house for sharing her bed it could not be called rape, the court said adding that the video-recordings the woman herself had produced did not prove rape charge.