The witchhunt over the Suryanelli case is invariably gruelling for former ADGP Siby Mathews who is now the State Chief Information Commissioner.
Disgusted with the turn of events, including a ‘media trial,’ however, he has no doubt that the investigation report contains the entirety of the probe, including why a suspect was listed as an accused or not. Despite the hue and cry now, Siby Mathews remains firm that on the basis of the pieces of evidence gathered and recorded in the court with regard to the case, any number of further probe would not alter the findings in the report filed by him.
‘’It includes the conclusions on the role of P J Kurien in the case on the particular date’’, Sibi Mathews told ‘Express.’ When the Supreme Court upheld the trial court verdict in the sensational case and came out with a recent ruling setting aside the High Court order which acquitted 34 and commuting the sentence of the remaining one in the list of accused, the investigation report remained sacrosanct under the scrutiny of all courts.
Among the new disclosures which are coming up with regard to the Suryanellli case is the correctness of the crucial date of February 19,1996, along with allegations that as the probe team leader you had tried to save P J Kurien?
The only day when Kurien, then Union minister, travelled without police escort while he was in Kerala for nine days in February 1996 was on the 19th. Documentary evidence based on the BSNL telephone call record list of calls made by Kurien on that day is in the court as well as in the state police headquarters, to pinpoint his presence at a given place. Anyone can go through it and come to their own conclusions. On all other days, Kurien had police escorting him wherever he went.
The victim girl repeatedly says that Kurien was one among those who had raped her on February 19, 1996?
The evidence which has been recorded with documentary support and filed in the trial court is specific on where Kurien was on the given date.
You mean that there is no scope for any further probe in the case in the light of the demand of the victim girl that Kurien should be put on trial against the backdrop of the Supreme Court verdict?
I don’t want to be part of any political game. The investigation report filed was after a meticulous exercise. The probe team filed the report in 2000 after a Herculean task spread over four years, under an eagle-eyed LDF government.
Whether P J Kurien could be zeroed in or not was probed in detail with the telephone call record holding the key, even as the victim girl remained firm on her stand that the Congress leader was one among who preyed upon her. Not less than 100 people were quizzed on the basis of the telephone list.