The Kerala Government, which had earlier turned down a request of the victim of the sensational Suryanelli serial rape scandal for a probe against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, on Tuesday rejected through an affidavit her plea for appointment of special public prosecutors to appear in the High Court to oppose the appeals the accused filed against a lower court verdict.
In an affidavit filed in the High Court through the office of the Director General of Prosecutions, the Government said that there was no need of special public prosecutors to argue the case. The Government said in the affidavit, submitted in response to an instruction of the court, that it had absolute trust in T Asif Ali, Director General of Prosecutions.
The victim of the serial rape had approached the High Court seeking orders for appointment of lawyers Suresh Babu Thomas and CS Rajendran, who had appeared as special prosecutors in the case in the Special Court in Kottayam which had culminated in the conviction of 36 accused, to argue against their appeals in the upper court.
She had made this request primarily on the ground that she had no trust in the DGP who had given a legal advice to the Congress-led State Government that there was no need for launching a probe or taking action against Kurien who, according to her, had brutally raped her in 1996 when she was just 16.
The High Court, which had on March 21 granted bail under stringent conditions to all the accused, had on April 2 instructed the State Government to file an affidavit on the plea of the victim for special public prosecutors. The court would now examine the plea on Friday.
The case pertains to the serial rape of a 16-year-old girl from Suryanelli village in Idukki district by 42 men at various places between January 16 and February 17, 1996. The girl, who had identified PJ Kurien from a photograph published in a newspaper on March 26 that year, has been alleging since then that he was one her tormentors.
A Special Court set up in Kottayam had in September, 2000 convicted 36 accused, sentencing them to imprisonment of varying terms. However, the HC on January 20, 2005 acquitted 35 of the 36 accused while commuting the life-term awarded to third accused Dharmarajan for a five-year jail term.
A division bench of the Kerala HC is currently reconsidering the case as per the orders issued on January 31 by the apex court, which termed the 2005 verdict as shocking.
The High Court order granting bail to the accused had evoked widespread criticisms against the way the Prosecution had handled the case. The victim’s father described the order as a result of the failure on the part of the Prosecution while leftist women leaders alleged that the court order exposed the Congress-led State Government’s prejudice against the victim.