The Hindu : Kerala News : Sex scandal case: court directive to Government

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Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Sex scandal case: court directive to Government

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, NOV. 23. The Division Bench of the Kerala High Court today directed the State Attorney to furnish the entire material relating to the ice-cream parlour sex scandal case. The case has been posted to Thursday.

The Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, B. Subhashan Reddy, and Justice Cyriac Joseph, issued the direction to the State Attorney, P. C. Iype, when a writ petition seeking a direction to the State Government to conduct further investigation into the Kozhikode sex scandal case came up.

When the writ petition was taken up for hearing, counsel for the petitioner contended that no laws prohibited the Government from conducting further investigation into the case in the light of the new disclosures made by the victim. The State Attorney submitted that the case was registered in 1997. According to him, the High Court had earlier dismissed writ petitions seeking further investigation by the police and a CBI inquiry into the case. The Supreme Court also dismissed the appeal against the High Court verdicts.

Mr. Iype also pointed out that when the victim, Rejeena, made fresh disclosures, the Chief Minister had directed the Inspector General of Police, Northern Range, to conduct an inquiry into the case. In the meantime, Rejeena retracted her statement.

Poser on victim

The court then asked the State Attorney whether the victim had implicated the Minister for Industries, P. K. Kunhalikutty, in the First Information Report (FIR). Mr. Iype replied that he was not sure whether Mr. Kunhalikutty had been made an accused in the FIR as he had not gone through the documents in the case.

Whatever statements had been submitted were based on the telephone conversation he had with the police officials concerned.

The court observed that it could rely only on the material placed on record. So, he had to place all the material, including the earlier High Court and Supreme Court judgments, in the case.

In his petition, T. R. Devan of Ernakulam submitted that as per Section 173(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the investigating agency could conduct further investigation into an offence even after a final report under Sub-section 173 (2) had been filed before the Magistrate.

If further investigation revealed that some fresh offences had been committed, the police could forward a new report to the Magistrate concerned. Therefore, a further investigation could be ordered into the case.

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