THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police team probing the sexual allegations against Congress MLA M. Vincent of Kovalam has decided to invoke rape charges against him. Only abetment of suicide charge was invoked in the case on Thursday. However, after Kollam City Police Commissioner Ajeetha Begum took the 50-year-old woman’s statement on Thursday, the police team decided to invoke rape charges. Mr Vincent may be arrested after recording his statement on Friday. He was also planning to apply for anticipatory bail. The investigation team reviewed the progress of the investigation on Thursday evening.
Neyyatinkara DySP B. Harikumar is probing the case under the supervision of Ajeetha Begum. The case was initiated on the basis of the statement of the woman’s husband that she attempted suicide as the MLA was making sleaze talk to her over phone despite repeated warnings. The MLA, however, denied the allegation and said that he knew the woman for many years and she used to contact him for local issues. He also said that the woman had told him that her husband did not like her calling him (MLA). The Neyyatinkara judicial first-class magistrate–I also recorded the woman’s statement by visiting her at the private hospital near Neyyatinkara where she was recuperating from over-consumption of some sedative pills on Wednesday.
While police sources preferred to be tight-lipped on the woman’s statement, they said that ‘there was something wrong’. The police was also verifying the authenticity of an audio conversation being circulated on the social media, said to be that of the MLA with the woman’s brother. According to the audio, Mr Vincent told the woman’s brother that he would end his life if the issue became public. The conversation took place soon after the woman was hospitalised.
