Plea of Kerala lecturers who sexually exploited student rejected

The Kerala High Court Friday dismissed a plea by seven accused, including three college lecturers, and upheld a lower court's verdict holding them guilty of sexually exploiting a girl student.

The case known as the "Pandalam sex scandal" occurred in 1997 when three college lecturers with their friends sexually exploited a girl student who was pursuing her final year degree course at the NSS College, Pandalam in Alappuzha district.

Her father registered a police complaint after the girl told her parents about the victimisation.

In 2002, the Kottayam additional sessions court found the seven guilty and sentenced them to 11 years' imprisonment.

It was against this verdict that the accused filed an appeal petition before the high court and judge P. Bhavadasan while dismissing the appeal, upheld the lower court's judgment.

Of the three lecturers, one committed suicide when the case trial was on. The other two are K. Venugopal and C.M. Prakash. Contractor M. Venugopal, provision store owner Jyothish Kumar, former panchayat member Manoj Kumar and TV serial producer K.G. Shah George are the remaining four in the case.