THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The acquittal of former minister P J Joseph in the molestation- attempt case has come as a blow to IG Traffic B Sandhya.
Sandhya, who probed the case had said in the enquiry report that the charges levelled by Lakshmi Gopakumar against Joseph were prima facie true. It was following this report that Joseph was forced to quit from the Cabinet.
The following are the excerpts from the enquiry report submitted by Sandhya, who was then IG of Armed Police Battalions, to the Government on September 3, 2006.
“Lakshmi Gopakumar was travelling on seat number 8A of the Kingfisher flight from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram on August 3 2006.
Joseph was also travelling on the same flight and his allotted seat was 17A. But he sat on seat number 9A just behind Lakshmi.
“When the flight took off, the visibility condition in the cabin was poor. At that time Joseph extended his left hand through the left side gap of the seat in front and touched the body of Lakshmi in such a manner that he outraged her modesty. As she was shocked, she screamed and summoned the airhostess for a change of seat. The airhostess changed her seat to the rear and comforted her. She also filled up the complaints card of the aircraft and handed over the same to the airhostess before the flight landed, though she was reluctant to give a complaint in writing at the outset, as she was scared about the consequences...” “Prima facie there is no conspiracy by the victim with anybody as far as the incident in concerned,” says the IG’s report