Special investigation team files chargesheet in Pantheerankavu domestic violence case
The plea by the defendant in the High Court is to be heard on August 8; complainant who made the allegations had retracted her statements
The special investigation team that probed the Pantheerankavu domestic violence case has filed a chargesheet against suspects in the Kozhikode Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-III. There are five suspects, including first accused Rahul P. Gopal, in the case that witnessed several twists and turns.
Rahul’s mother and sister are the second and third accused respectively. The fourth and fifth accused are Rahul’s friend Rajesh and civil police officer Sarath Lal respectively. Rahul, who is also the husband of the complainant, has been charged for murder attempt, rape, and domestic violence. Meanwhile, his mother and sister face charges of domestic violence. The remaining two are accused of facilitating Rahul’s escape to Germany.
The chargesheet was filed by the police when the plea by the defendant in the Kerala High Court was to be heard on August 8. The woman who made the allegations had retracted all her previous statements and said that she had come up with the charges after being compelled to do so by her parents. She retracted the statements through two YouTube videos uploaded on her page recently.
It was on May 5 that the marriage between Rahul and the North Paravur native took place. Complaints about alleged physical torture and domestic violence surfaced when the girl’s parents came to visit her at Pantheerankavu in Kozhikode on May 12. Though the alleged grievance was taken up with the Pantheerankavu police, there was no favourable response from them, according to the complainant’s parents who later approached the State Police Chief and the Chief Minister.
The Pantheerankavu Station House Officer had been placed under suspension after he was accused of cold-shouldering the initial complaint. The State Human Rights Commission and the State Women’s Commission had also registered separate cases, apart from seeking reports from the police higher-ups on the alleged lapse.
During investigation, Rahul’s mother and sister were booked. This was apart from the suspension of a civil police officer at the Pantheerankavu station who allegedly leaked the case details to Rahul, prompting him to leave the country.
Though a lookout notice by the police and a Blue Corner notice by the Interpol were issued against the prime suspect who fled to Germany, he could not be tracked. The complainant retracted her statement when the police were going ahead with an intensified probe to bring him back. Police sources said the legal proceedings in the case would not end though the complainant had withdrawn her allegations.
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