The court also said that the accused are not entitled to get the copy of the statement at this stage.
Kochi:
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday said that if the statement made by a minor victim before a magistrate in the POCSO case against the owner of Hotel 18 in Kochi and two others is found to be credible, their anticipatory bail plea will be rejected.
Justice Gopinath P made the remarks during the hearing of anticipatory bail petitions by three accused – Hotel 18 owner Roy J Violat and his friends Anjali Vadakkepurakkal and Siju M Thankachan, who have alleged that there are complaints of molestation and sexual harassment against them. There was “a deliberate attempt to blackmail” the minor’s mother.
They also argued that the complaint was filed after a delay of more than three months as the alleged incident took place in October last year and the complaint was filed only in January this year.
According to the complainant mother, who was an employee of Vadakkepurakkal, the latter had invited her and her daughter to Hotel 18 under the guise of a meeting and there Violet had allegedly molested the minor and also recorded her video. .
The complaint claimed that Vadakkepurakkal allegedly circulated the video and other photographs of the minor to social media and others after the mother and daughter left the hotel.
According to the prosecution, the minor has given a statement to the magistrate under section 164 of CrPC and in this he has made serious allegations against the three accused.
The court said that it will examine the statement of the minor under section 164 of CrPC with a magistrate and if found to be credible, it will reject the anticipatory bail plea of the three accused in the POCSO case.
The court also observed that the accused were not entitled to obtain a copy of the 164 statements at this stage and listed the matter for further hearing on Thursday, February 24.
Hotel 18, Violet and Thankachan first came into the limelight in connection with the death of three people, including two models, in a car accident that resulted in the latter allegedly following them in his four-wheeler.
Model Ansey Kabir (25) and Anjana Shajan (24) died in a horrific accident on November 1 last year. A third passenger in the car died a few days later.
According to the prosecution in that case, Thankachan allegedly followed the model from a bar to Hotel 18 and when they left to escape from her, he followed her.
In that case, the High Court had granted bail to Thankachan.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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