Kerala rape victim wants Cong leader probed again

A day after the Supreme Court set aside the Kerala High Court verdict acquitting 35 accused in the serial rape of a minor girl from Suryanelli in Kerala, the victim stuck to her stand that senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien was among those assaulted her.

In a letter to "the counsel appearing for the de-facto complainant/victim", the girl requested him to explore the possibility of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court against its earlier order which exonerated Kurien, by quashing the proceedings of a private complaint at a magistrate court in Idukki district in Kerala.

The letter, written on January 29, said that every investigating officer was told that Kurien had allegedly assaulted her along with others at a guest house in Kumali in Idukki. But after the probe they had not charge-sheeted him in the case and hence, the victim said, she had filed a private complaint at the judicial magistrate court at Peerumedu in Idukki.

After recording the statement of the victim, the court had issued summons to Kurien, who approached the high court seeking quashing of the proceedings. After the high court dismissed his petition, Kurian won a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court. She said that she was neither summoned by the Supreme Court nor given a chance to present her case. Under pressure, police officers had tried to save Kurien, she alleged.

Kurien said the court had found that he was innocent. "Senior police officials had probed the case several times during the previous regimes of the CPM and the Congress alike. Media are giving more importance to sensationalism than truth,'' said Kurien in Thiruvananthapuram.

Senior advocate Chander Uday Singh, who led the victim's case in the apex court against the acquittals of 35 accused, said he had not received any such letter nor had he any information about her request for re-opening the case against Kurien.

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