India News | Mayookha's Friend's Rape Case: Crime Branch Files Report in HC on Probe Carried out So Far

Kochi, July 30 (PTI) The Crime Branch on Friday placed before the Kerala High Court, its report on the investigation carried out so far in the rape case lodged on the complaint of Olympian Mayookha Johny's friend, who has alleged the accused took nude photographs of her to blackmail her.

Meanwhile the anticipatory bail plea of the man -- Chungath Johnson -- who is accused of raping Johny's friend, was again adjourned, this time to August 2, after the senior counsel engaged by him was arguing before another bench and the prosecutor was not available post lunch for arguments.

This is the third time this week that the anticipatory bail plea, which was filed in May, has been adjourned.

On July 27 it was adjourned to July 28 and on that date it was adjourned to Friday, July 30.

Justice ShircyV said she will hear arguments in the anticipatory bail plea on Monday, August 2.

The victim's counsel alleged during the hearing that Johnson was not afraid of the police, but of a court order and that is why he was keeping his anticipatory bail plea pending.

The lawyer further alleged that Johnson's lawyers were seeking adjournment on each date, citing non-availability of the senior counsel and contended that this should not be allowed to continue.

The lawyer also said police had earlier claimed lack of scientific evidence in the case as the crime had taken place five years ago and said that this was due to lack of effort on their part back then.

He said the seizure of phones etc by police was only done this year after the matter attracted media attention.

Last month, Johny had held a press conference, levelling serious allegations against the Kerala police anda former official of the state women's commission inconnection with the investigation into the case of rape of herfriend in 2016.

Johny had alleged that her friend was raped by Chungath Johnson, who took nude photos of her and used them to blackmail the victim.

She had also alleged that her friend was being threatened.

She had alleged that police, after initially promising action, became inactive due to intervention of highly influential persons in favour of the accused.

The police had recently told the court that the probe was only recently handed over to theCrime Branch on July 5 on the orders of the State Police Chief.

It had also told the court that the Crime Branch had taken over the investigation on July 8 and had proceeded to record the statements of the victim, her mother and the doctor who examined her after the incident in2016.

It had further told the court that several mobile phones related to the crime have been seized and a special team was constituted by the Crime Branch on July 18 to probethe case.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)