The Kerala High Court today adjournedto March 4 the hearing of the bail pleas of 17 accused inthe Suriyanelli rape case allegedly involving Rajya SabhaDeputy Chairman P J Kurien.
A division bench comprising Justices K T Shankaran and M LJoseph Francis said the appeal and records about the case hadnot been received from the Supreme court and it cannot proceedwithout perusing them, even though the accused wanted theirpleas to be taken up today.
According to the accused, the apex court had not gone intothe merits of the case and judgement was on technical grounds.
The accused, who had been convicted and sentenced by thesessions court, are among the 35 acquitted by a division benchof the High Court in 2005.
However, the Supreme Court had however recently set asidethe acquittals and asked them to surrender before the specialcourt hearing the case.
First accused Rajan and fifth accused Cherian are amongthose who have moved for bail maintaining there was nomaterial against them to prove the charges.
Dharmarajan, the third accused, who had jumped bail, hadrecently been arrested from Karnataka and sent to jail. TheHigh Court had reduced his life term to five years. Followingthe Supreme Court judgement, Dharmarajan has to undergo therest of his prison term.
The case relates to a 16-year-old girl who was abducted in1996 and taken to to various places and sexually exploited.
Kurien was acquitted but the victim had recently named himas one of those who allegedly assaulted her in 1996.
The victim had also sent a letter to her advocate seekingto explore the possibility of filing a review plea in theSupreme Court for a fresh probe against Kurien, who accordingto the victim, had raped her at the Kumily guest house onFebruary 9, 1996.
Kurien has maintained that he had been cleared of thecharges by the apex court.