A month after the Kerala High Court pronounced the verdict awarding sentence in the Suryanelli rape case, the 23 convicted persons, except prime accused Dharmarajan, are still enjoying freedom. Dharmarajan has been in jail since he was arrested from a hideout in Karanataka.
According to legal experts, the bail of the accused will be automatically cancelled once the order of conviction is passed. The Kerala High Court had awarded life imprisonment to Dharmarajan, the prime accused in the case, while upholding the sentence of 23 other accused, on April 4.
The HC had also directed the trial court to issue a warrant of arrest for serving sentence. Sources said that the trial court is disarmed to act on the High Court order for want of case records. The trial court proceedings have been delayed due to the lag in transferring the records to the trial court. Once the trial court receives all documents relating to the case, it will cancel the bail awarded to the accused.
The office of the Registrar of Kerala High Court informed that the procedure is likely to be delayed as the documents are rather voluminous and it will take time to verify all the documents received from the Supreme Court to start the hearing afresh in the case.
A section of advocates expressed dismay on the delay in transferring the case records of a sensational case like the Suryanelli sex scam. A Division Bench comprising Justice K T Sankaran and Justice M L Joseph Francis had issued the order on the appeals filed by the accused who had been convicted by the Kottayam Sessions Court.
On January 31, 2013, the Supreme Court had set aside the 2005 judgment of the Kerala High Court acquitting all except the prime accused Dharmarajan, and directed it to hear the appeal afresh. This hearing lasted for almost one year.
The Kottayam Sessions Court had convicted 36 accused in September 2000 and acquitted four others.
The 36 accused had approached the High Court and in 2005 and the HC had acquitted all the accused, except Dharmarajan, whose conviction and sentence were modified to four years’ rigorous imprisonment instead of life imprisonment.