The Kerala High Court on Thursday, October 26, 2023, issued notice to All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal, MP, on a petition filed against the the Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate Court order accepting a report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which gave a clean chit to the Congress leader in a sexual assault case lodged by the prime accused in the solar cheating case.
Justice C.S. Dias issued notice when the petition filed by the victim came up for hearing. According to her, the magistrate court should not have gone deep into the facts and circumstances of the case at this stage. From the materials produced before the court by the investigating agency there are sufficient evidence to make out a prima facie case agains Mr. Venugopal. When a prima facie case is established, the magistrate had no authority to reject her petiton objecting to the CBI’s report. She alleged that the Magistrate court has exceeded his jurisdiction and powers in dismissing her “protest petition” against the report. The magistrate had discussed about the merits of the case in his order.
‘Magistrate court erred in dismissing protest plea’
She further alleged that the Magistrate court had conducted “a mini trial in the matter with the available evidence collected by the investigating agency and passed a judgment acquitting the accused” .The magistrate court had even overlooked the settled principals of law on the procedure to be adopted while dealing with the CBI’s reports and her protest petition. It is impermissible in law to dismiss a protest petition without examining the complainant and its witnesses on oath.
She also alleged that by filing the closure report, the investigating agency has made it much apparent that itwas absolutely biased and took up the investigation only to conclude its findings in favour of the accused. The investigating agency had collected many materials during the investigation which will substantiate the case of the complainant/victim.
”The attempt of the investigating agency was only to show that the complainant/victim is a person with criminal background and is of shady character. It is the admitted case of the complainant/victim that she is involved in many criminal cases registered on the basis of complaints filed by the customers of the company for non completion of works undertook by the company(solar panel installations). No other case is registered against the complainant anywhere. The investigating agency is making allegations against the complainant/victim in the closure report”, the victim said in her petition.
