In a historical verdict termed to be the rarest of the rare, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday made ‘irrelevant’ an order by a previous Division Bench of the same High Court.
The court also pointed out that when asked, counsel for the accused in Suryanelli sex scandal case had submitted that they did not have any case of child prostitution.
A Division Bench comprising Justice K T Sankaran and Justice M L Joseph Francis, while convicting the accused in Suryanelli case, observed that the victim is not a deviant girl and her evidence could be believed. However the earlier Bench comprising Justice K A Abdul Gafoor and Justice R Basanth had observed that the victim could not be reckoned as a trustworthy witness, and said: “Her evidence deserves careful scrutiny, because of her past conduct of squandering the amount given her parents for remitting hostel fees and even daring to pledge her ornaments.”
The Bench had also observed that there was no attempt on her part to escape from the clutches of any of the accused, including Dharmarajan.
“When such a girl is away from the custody of her parents for around 40 days and was with several other persons, it cannot be said that the evidence regarding her unwillingness for sexual intercourse should be believed as such without insisting on satisfactory materials for assurance, as in the case of a rape victim of a solitary instance,” the court had observed.
She was also taken to the hospital twice, but there was no attempt on her part to escape, the court had said while acquitting the accused.
However, the present judges disallowed the earlier finding of the other Bench.
It pointed out that the victim girl was in love with Raju, but he did not love her. “The court does not think that it is an answer to an allegation of rape that the victim had misappropriated money or tried to pledge her ornaments without the knowledge of her father. Even a sex worker is entitled to protection from sexual atrocities,” it said.
It also pointed out that there was no material to reach at the conclusion that the victim had sexual intercourse with several men to satisfy her lust.
Among the accused, there were men who are aged as much as that of her father.
There was no consent on part of the victim for the sexual activities.
The court said that the evidence of the victim runs into 590 pages and narrated several incidents of rape which took place at several places. The evidence would disclose that the victim was “put in such a predicament and situation that she could not escape”, the court pointed out.