THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the state government ordered probe against former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and nine others in connection with sexual allegations raised by Saritha S Nair, the police is still groping in the dark in a rape case registered against former MLA A.P. Abdullakutty on a complaint of Saritha three years back.
According to police and legal sources, a woman's complaint was only required to register a rape case. Evidence of the presence of the accused and the victim at the same spot of the alleged crime at the same time could facilitate charge sheeting.
But when it comes to trial before a court, the crucial factors to prove rape are medical evidences, reasonable justification for delay in filing complaint and relationship between the victim and accused before and after the alleged rape.
The rate of conviction in rapes cases is only around 20 percent. The average time being taken for the trial of a rape case is seven years.
Though a team of the city police that initially probed into the rape allegations against Abdullakutty was about to wind-up the investigation as they could not find any evidences, the LDF government had decided to handover the probe to the Crime Branch.
"The investigation into the case is going on. Hence any further details could not be revealed," said a Crime Branch official. Crime Branch SP Rajpal Meena is now probing the case.
According to sources, though Saritha alleged in the complaint that Abdullakutty raped her at Mascot Hotel here, the initial investigation by a team of the city police could not find any evidence of Abdullakutty's presence at Mascot Hotel during the alleged time of rape. Even Saritha did not turn up for giving further statements, despite repeated communications by the investigation team led by then city crime records bureau assistant commissioner K.E. Baiju.
Sources said that the investigation team was even about to wind-up the probe and keep it undetected until further evidences come up. It was at that point of time the LDF government came to power and decided to handover the case to the Crime Branch.
Legal and police sources said that proving a delayed complaint of rape would be a challenging task. Getting any more medical evidences were almost impossible. The victim will also have to give reasonable justifications for delay in complaining. The presence of the victim with the accused could be verified by locating mobile phone tower locations.
When it comes to the matter of whether rape or consensual sex, the crucial matters would be the relationship of the victim with the accused before and after the alleged crime. If it is a case of sexual gratification in return of any favours received from the accused that were holding official positions, rape could not be framed. But the accused could be charged of misusing official positions.
Though Saritha was convicted in a case and is facing about 30 other cheating cases, the antecedents of the victim of rape case would not have any bearing on the case. Hence her shady past would not weaken the rape allegations.
It may be recalled that Saritha had earlier alleged in a media interview that some CPM leader offered her bribe to raise sexual allegations against Mr. Chandy. This could be also turn out to be a defensive for Mr. Chandy.
