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The Kerala government on Thursday 1submitted in the high court that a Public Interest Litigation seeking further investigation against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien in the nearly two-decade-old Suryanelli rape case was not maintainable and pointed that the prime accused had retracted his statement which sought to implicate the Congress leader.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front government filed an affidavit stating that Dharmarajan, the lone convict in the case, had last month retracted his statement before the Thodupuzha Sessions court and the PIL filed by Mahila Sangam state committee, the women's wing of the Communist party of India, was not maintainable and liable to be dismissed.
The petition had been filed without the knowledge and consent of the victim, it was stated. In a new twist to the case, Dharmarajan had withdrawn his claim that he had taken Kurien in his car to a guest house in Kumily where the victim was lodged and said he was not familiar with him.
The government filed the affidavit on a direction by a division bench of the court in reply to the PIL seeking to conduct further investigation into the alleged involvement of Kurien on the basis of recent revelations made by the victim.
It said the grievance narrated in the petition was 'purely a personal cause' of the victim girl and no way connected with the petitioner's aim and object. There is no public cause or public interest in filing the petition.
The case relates to a 16-year-old girl from Suryanelli in Idukki district being abducted in January 1996 and taken to to various places and sexually exploited by at least 40 persons.
Kurien, alleged to be an accused, was acquitted in the case but the victim had recently named him as one of those who assaulted her at the Kumily guest house on February 9, 1996. Kurien has maintained that he had been cleared of the charges by the Supreme Court.