The accused lodge owner stated that the woman and her partner had threatened him for money.
After a 40-year-old Kerala resident accused a Palani lodge owner and others of brutally raping and torturing her, murky details in the case have surfaced following investigations by the Palani police. On Tuesday, Muthu, the owner of Temple Cottage lodge in Palani, who has been accused of rape by the woman claimed that the woman and her partner had threatened him with dire consequences for money.
“The couple came to my lodge and took a room. The next day they entered into a brawl after consuming liquor and later in the day they left the lodge with their belongings and without paying money. This was on June 20. On June 25 they came back and took their Aadhar card and requested some money which I gave them and then they left,” he said.
The woman and her partner are residents of Kannur’s Thalassery where they work. According to their complaint with the Thalassery police, they had visited the temple town of Palani in Dindigul to visit the Lord Muruga shrine on June 19. However, the Palani temple was shut due to the COVID-19 lockdown on this date.
In their complaint the woman says that she was attacked by a group on June 20, when her parnter had stepped out to buy food.
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Giving his statement to the police, Muthu the owner of the Temple Cottage – which the complaint mentions – said that the couple had not taken back their original Aadhar cards before checking out of the lodge on June 20. On June 25, they returned to the lodge and took their Aadhar cards, according to sources in Palani.
Following this, on July 6, he received a call which the police have now verified to be the woman’s partner. “I received a call stating that it was from the Thalassery police and asked me to give money or face the consequences of rape. I said I will not pay and after this, I am hearing about these charges,” Muthu adds. On July 7, he heard about the complaint of rape levelled against him.
On Tuesday, Dindugal range DIG Vijayakumari IPS and Palani DySP Siva held a press conference stating that a three-member team investigating the case had gone to Kannur to take the statements of the couple. The woman had complained that “she was gang-raped by a group of three persons who took her forcibly to the lodge and beat her partner and that the culprits had injured her private parts using beer bottles.” However, the investigating officers added that a preliminary report from the hospital in Kannur where the woman could not establish that she was tortured and gang raped.
The police also confirmed that they have received CCTV footage of the woman and her partner in an inebriated state, and recorded Muthu’s statements. Muthu has also filed a police complaint against the couple.
Speaking to the media in Palani, Dindugal police chief Ravalli Priya IPS said “We had not received a police complaint in the station. This is a very serious issue and if the police officers had neglected to do their duty, or shown some laxity, they would face severe punishment. This is a very severe case and a woman related case.”
The probe team also added that further action in the case would only be discussed once investigations were completed.
(With inputs from IANS)
Source: The News Minute