KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has stayed for a month the order of the Ernakulam Additional District and Sessions Court (for the trial of cases relating to atrocities and sexual violence against women and children) discharging the accused from rape charge in the case related to the rape and murder of a 25-year-old research scholar at NIT, Kozhikode. The court issued the interim order on the petition filed by K Krishnan Nair, the father of the deceased, challenging the order of the Sessions Court.
Subhash, then assistant professor of NIT, is the only accused in the case. According to the Crime Branch, the victim was pushed to death by her fellow traveller Subhash from a moving train while it traversed a bridge through Periyar in Aluva on April 25, 2011. The victim’s head hit the pillar of the bridge and she fell into the river. Subhash pushed her off the train purely to take revenge after she refused to marry him, the CB stated.
‘No evidence to prove rape’
The Sessions Court had held there was no material to show Subhash had raped the deceased. It is true there is evidence to show the petitioner and the deceased stayed in a resort in Wayanad. The deceased was not a minor. So, even if it was admitted the deceased and the petitioner had resided together in a resort, at any stretch of the imagination, it cannot be said there was rape. “If at all there was any sexual contact, it can only be considered as consensual sex.
So, there is no sufficient ground to proceed against the accused under section 376 of IPC. At the same time, there is sufficient ground to proceed against the accused for the offence punishable under section 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC and section 117 (d) (deliberately makes a false statement to a police officer with intent to mislead the police in material particulars in a police investigation or due performance of police duty) of the Kerala Police Act,” the Sessions Court had held.
Contention of the victim’s father
According to the petitioner, there was sufficient ground to proceed against the accused on rape charges. A statement of the witness clearly reveals the accused had been blackmailing the victim using the visuals of their sexual acts. During the probe, the police gathered scientific, direct and circumstantial evidence regarding the sexual assault by the accused. The relationship between the accused and the woman was not that of a student and a teacher. The accused had abused his position as a teacher to force the victim to have sexual relationships. In this case, the victim was murdered and the prosecution could have depended on the circumstantial and scientific evidence. It was improper on the part of the Sessions Court to come to a definite conclusion the sexual intercourse, if taken place, can only be concluded as one with consent, the petition stated.