India News | Mayookha's Friend's Rape Case: HC to Hear Anticipatory Bail of Chungath Johnson on July 30

Kochi, Jul 27 (PTI) The Kerala High Court on Tuesday said it will hear on July 30 the anticipatory bail plea of the man who allegedly raped the friend of OlympianMayookha Johny and took nude photos of the victim to blackmail her.

Justice Shircy V declined to adjourn the matter by 10 days as sought by the counsel for the man -- Chungath Johnson, saying "we cannot keep adjourning it like this."

Johnson's lawyer had sought an adjournment as the senior counsel who was to appear in the matter was in personal difficulty.

The court said it will hear the anticipatory bail plea along with the petition filed by the victim, who has claimed that the rape case was not being investigated properly, on July 30.

The court on July 19 had called for a report from the officer investigating the rape case.

When the court asked for the report on Tuesday, the public prosecutor appearing for the police said it was ready and would be filed soon and sought time for the same.

On the last date of hearing, the prosecutor had told the court that the probe was only recently handed over to the Crime Branch on July 5 on the orders of the State Police Chief.

The prosecutor 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 thevictim, her mother and the doctor who examined her after theincident back in 2016.

He had further told the court that several mobile phones related to the crime have been seized and a special team wasconstituted by the Crime Branch on July 18 to probe the case.

Last month, Johny had held a press conference levelling serious allegations against the Kerala police and aformer official of the state women's commission in connectionwith the investigation into the case of rape of her friend in2016.

Johny had alleged that her friend was raped by Chungath Johnson who took nude photos of her and used them toblackmail 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.PTI HMPSS

(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)