The Hindu : Kerala News : Fresh charges likely in Kiliroor case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Fresh charges likely in Kiliroor case

By Our Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM, NOV. 14. The chief of the special investigation team probing the Kiliroor sex racket case, R. Sreelekha, has said that the charges may have to be changed on the basis of the findings of the autopsy. The police have already sought legal advice as the victim died even as the investigation was in progress.

According to Ms. Sreelekha, the victim gave her statement to the police when she was in full conscience. As such, there is no meaning in saying that the evidence is incomplete. So far there are eight accused in the case and all have been booked. However, it is not unlikely that new names might crop up during investigation.

The DIG expressed confidence that the proposed inquiry by the CBI was a welcome step and the decision to entrust the inquiry to the CBI was not a comment on the functioning of the Kerala police but only an affirmation in the calibre of the Central agency.

Autopsy done

Meanwhile, the body of Shaari S. Nair, the victim of the Kiliroor sex racket, was taken to her father's house at Thrikodithanam, near Changanassery, for burial this evening after autopsy. She breathed her last at the Kottayam Government Medical College on Saturday evening. The teenaged unwed mother had developed post-natal complexities after giving birth to a girl child on August 15. She had been fighting for her life for the past three months.

The autopsy was conducted by a team of doctors drafted from government medical colleges in Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram as the girl's parents had requested. The autopsy which commenced after 2.30 p.m. took more than two hours to complete. The entire process was video-graphed by the police. Hundreds of people had thronged the Kottayam Medical College campus right from the morning. The body was placed in front of the mortuary for the public to have a glimpse of it. Leaders of all political parties were present on the occasion. Activists of the DYFI 90raised slogans against the UDF Government which, according to them, was responsible for the girl's death.

Though there was a demand from certain quarters that the body should be cremated, it was later agreed that since the investigation was still on, such a move would unnecessarily cast a shadow over the whole affair. Since the 13 cents of land which is the ancestral property of the girl's father faced threat from inundation in the monsoon period, it was decided to construct a concrete vault.

According to the Medical College Hospital superintendent, Ashokan, the autopsy report would be ready within the next two or three days. This report will be submitted to the investigating officer who in turn would have to produce it in court.

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