Notice issued by Kerala HC to KC Venugopal on rape victim’s plea

Kochi: In response to a revision plea filed by the victim of a rape case contesting a magistrate court's approval of the CBI's closure report, the Kerala High Court on Thursday sent notice to K C Venugopal, general secretary of the AICC.

The notice was sent by the high court when the victim's petition was scheduled for hearing.

In her plea, the victim, who is a prime accused in the solar panel scam, challenged the court’s decision to accept the CBI’s closure report giving clean chit to the Congress leader in the sexual assault case.

She said that the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Thiruvananthapuram accepted the closure report, despite filing a petition raising an objection.

The victim said that in the plea she had filed before the magistrate court, she had pinpointed all the materials found in the CBI probe, which corroborates her case and also points out the flaws in the investigation.

The woman alleged that the court dismissed her petition without stating at least one valid and legally sustainable reason.

“From the materials produced by the CBI before the jurisdictional court, it can be seen that many witnesses have given statements, which show that both the accused and victim were there at the Rose House on May 24, 2012, at 4:30 PM”, she said in the revision petition filed before the high court.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had given a clean chit to all six accused in the case including Venugopal and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the sexual exploitation allegation levelled by the woman.

The CBI also submitted another referral report in court exonerating BJP leader A P Abdullakutty in the sexual exploitation complaint by the woman, who is the prime accused in the sensational solar scam that rocked the southern state when the Congress-led government was in power nearly a decade ago.

The case against Abdullakutty had been registered in 2014, when he was a Congress MLA from Kannur.

He later joined the BJP.

The CBI had also submitted referral reports to the court, giving clean chit to three other Congress leaders, including Lok Sabha MPs Adoor Prakash and Hibi Eden and MLA A P Anil Kumar, who were named as accused in the sexual exploitation case filed by the woman.

With PTI inputs