Dec 11, 2008
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A magistrate court here on Wednesday ordered the police to investigate the allegation that Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy and two top political functionaries attached to the Chief Minister’s office, among others, had “stolen or destroyed” the files pertaining to a purported State government request seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the Kiliroor sex scandal case.
Judicial First Class Magistrate-III Philip Thomas passed the order on a private complaint filed by Neyyatinkara P. Nagaraj, a lawyer. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s political secretary K.N. Balagopal and his private secretary S. Rajendran are among those named as respondents in the complaint.
The Magistrate directed the Cantonment police to register a case and investigate the complainant’s allegations. Mr. Nagaraj accused the respondents of “stealing or destroying the file” containing the Chief Minister’s purported request to the Union Home Minister for a CBI inquiry (by an officer in the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police) into the sex scandal case.
Mr. Nagaraj alleged that the respondents had also filched a second “file” prepared at the Chief Minister’s instance by his former additional secretary K. Suresh Kumar reminding the Union Home Minister to order a CBI investigation into the case at the earliest. He requested the court to direct the police to register a case of conspiracy, theft, destruction of evidence and disappearance of evidence against the respondents. The court marked its order to the Sub-Inspector, Cantonment police. The Secretariat comes under his jurisdictional area.
Mr. Nagaraj said he filed the complaint in public interest and on the basis of the revelations made on Tuesday by Mr. Suresh Kumar. He said he had other documents supporting his allegations. The Kiliroor sex scandal case relates to the death of an unwed teenage mother, Shari, in 2005 in a hospital in Kottayam district.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), especially Mr. Achuthanandan who was then Leader of the Opposition, had made the girl’s death an election issue illustrative of the increasing sexual exploitation of women in Kerala. In his complaint, Mr. Nagaraj alleged that the respondents had stolen the files to save the wards of two Ministers from a possible CBI investigation into the case.
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