The Kerala High Court, on August 20, suspended the life sentence awarded to K. Padmarajan in the Palathayi rape case. In November last year, the Fast Track Special Court, Thalassery, Kannur, had found him guilty of raping a Class IV student. At the time, Padmarajan was working as a Malayalam teacher at the UP School in Palathayi. The Division Bench allowed his application for suspension of the sentence, and he was granted conditional bail. Padmarajan is a committed Sangh Swayamsevak and a former BJP office-bearer.
The Court prima facie observed that the victim’s statement contained several inconsistencies and appeared to have several “decorations”. The Court noted that the alleged place of occurrence was a toilet located very close to the classrooms. Both teachers and students could easily witness the movement in and out of the toilet, as the windows had no shutters.
The Court also noted that one of the doctors who examined the victim found no evidence of sexual abuse. However, a second doctor found that her hymen was torn and observed that it could have been caused by scratching with a finger due to a fungal infection. The Court also noted that the initial police investigation and the subsequent Crime Branch investigation had reached different conclusions regarding the alleged sexual assault.
The Court observed that the contentions raised by the applicant could not be brushed aside casually and that, at first sight, there appeared to be merit in them. The Bench said it was convinced that the applicant had made an arguable case.
The prosecution alleged that Padmarajan had committed aggravated penetrative sexual assault and rape against the victim, a 10-and-a-half-year-old girl, inside the school toilet on three occasions.
The trial court had found him guilty under Sections 376AB, 376(2)(f) and 354B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 5(f), (l) and (m), read with Section 6, of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. It had sentenced him to life imprisonment under Section 376AB of the IPC.
Even during the police investigation, the team reportedly found several inconsistencies and contradictions in the victim’s statements. She changed the dates of the alleged incidents several times, while Padmarajan was reportedly not present at the school on most of the days she mentioned.
At one point, she stated that one of the alleged incidents took place on a day when an NSS (National Service Scheme) programme was being held. However, there was reportedly no NSS programme on that day. According to an examination of mobile tower locations, Padmarajan was away from the school on the dates mentioned by the girl.
Local people have alleged that the case was fabricated by religious fundamentalists because Padmarajan had made several Facebook posts in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) during the anti-CAA agitation. The agitation took place in December 2019, while the girl alleged that the incidents occurred in January 2020.
There were also reports that CPM veteran P. Jayarajan had raised questions about the allegations in one of his Facebook posts during the early stages of the case.
