THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The parents of Suryanelli rape survivor has got a surprise from the Kerala Women’s Commission office informing that their complaint lodged in July 2017 has finally been taken up. Their plea was to withdraw the copies of former investigating officer IG Siby Mathews’ service story book, ‘Nirbhayam’, released that year and also give necessary directives to remove personal and inappropriate comments about the survivor and them from the future editions of the book.
The family of the the now 41-year-old survivor had approached the KWC during late M C Josephine’s tenure in July 2017. They were purportedly asked not to proceed with their plea by Josephine citing that the author was a top police official. The survivor’s parents, who are in their late 70s, got the surprise when they heard from KWC chairperson P Satheedevi’s office on Monday.
“As part of disposing of the files, the parents got a letter from the KWC regarding their July 6, 2017 complaint. They were asked to get in touch with the KWC within 10 days if they still wish to go ahead with their earlier complaint. They are extremely happy with the latest development. The Suryanelli case is still going on as their appeal against granting bail to the main accused, S Dharmarajan, who is serving life sentence is still pending before the Supreme Court,” a family source told TNIE.
The family source also said Siby Mathews in his memoirs had penned about the survivor’s personal details and inappropriate comments about her illness following the serial rape. They were also peeved that her identity was also revealed which caused them further humiliation when they had been already going through a horrible phase since 1996. The family had directly come to the KWC office in Thiruvananthapuram and lodged a complaint against Siby Mathews’ book in July 2017 itself.
“During the last four years, we had never heard from the KWC. We were not in a position to chase our complaint mentally and physically. The book is still in circulation and the readers and legal students will take it up as an official historical document which would put us again in bad light. Hence, the copies which are in circulation should be withdrawn and in the subsequent editions, the excerpts where we and our daughter have been put in bad light should be withdrawn,” added the family source.
The case of kidnapping and rape of the then 16-year-old schoolgirl from Suryanelli in Idukki was registered in 1996. The girl was allegedly lured with the promise of marriage and kidnapped. She was allegedly raped by 45 persons, over a period of 40 days, after taking her to various places.
OBJECTIONABLE DETAILS’ REMOVAL SOUGHT
In the complaint filed in 2017, the parents of the rape survivor had sought removal of objectionable details about her and them from the future editions of former investigating officer IG Siby Mathews’ service story