In a major relief for the harried Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien, embroiled in the nearly two-decade-old Suryanelli (a remote village in Kerala’s hilly district Idukki) sex racket, the victim’s plea seeking inclusion of the Congress leader in the case has been rejected by a sessions court in Thodupuzha in Idukki.
The victim in the 17-year-old case had moved the court against Kurien based on the 'revelation' of the sole convict in the case Dharmarajan, who had claimed in a media interview a few months back that he had taken Kurien in his car to a guest house at Kumily where the then a Class VIII student was lodged after she eloped with a private bus conductor on a false promise of marriage.
Dharmarajan had later retracted the claim in the court through an affidavit stating he had never met Kurien and he was in an inebriated state when he made the charge through the media. Sessions judge Abraham Mathew in his order held that the victim's plea for inclusion of Kurien in the sex scandal case is not maintainable. The victim filed the private review petition on the basis of the lone convict S S Dharmarajan’s 'revelation' that he had taken Kurien to the guest house. A few days after his interview to a channel, Dharmarajan was arrested from Karnataka after absconding for several years by jumping bail.
However, Dharmarajan had on May 28 retracted his statement in an affidavit filed before the court. Two other accused in the case, Jamal and Unnikrishnan Nair, whom Dharmarajan had earlier claimed to be witnesses to the incident, had contested his claim. The victim moved the sessions court after the Peerumade first class judicial magistrate court rejected her plea for a fresh inquiry in the case based on Dharmarajan’s statement.
The 1996 case came into focus recently after the Supreme Court invalidated the Kerala High Court verdict acquitting 35 accused in the case. The girl from Suryanelli was abducted in January 1996 and was taken from place to place across Kerala and the neigbhouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and was allegeldly sexually exploited by as many nearly 50 people, including Kurien in a span of 45 days.
