Jose Thettayil files petition to quash rape case against him

Former Kerala Minister and JD-S MLA, Jose Thettayil, embroiled in a sexual harassment case, today filed a petition in the High Court seeking to quash the case against him.
The petition would come up for hearing tomorrow.
Police at nearby Aluva registered a case against him and his son for sexual harassment last week based on the complaint of a woman that she had been sexually harassed by father and son. Thettayil is the first accused and his son, second.
In the petition filed through his lawyer, Thettayil, a minister in the previous LDF government, contended that he has not done any offence punishable under IPC section 376 (rape). The averments and allegations of the woman were absolutely false, the petition said.

"It is reliably understood that the woman had been instigated by some prominent leaders of the ruling political front to fabricate a false case and to file a frivolous complaint against the petitioner and his son with the ulterior motive to tide over the political crisis prevailing in the state," the plea said.
"The inordinate delay in preferring the complaint is a tell tale circumstance buttressing the above suspicion. Still the police even without ascertaining the veracity of the allegations registered the crime on extraneous considerations," it said.
Police also have initiated a manhunt for arresting Thettayil who has not committed any offence at all, his lawyer said in the petition. Registration of the crime against the petitioner and his son in the absence of commission of any offence and continuation of the investigation amounts to abuse of process of law, it said.

Even if all the allegations are taken to be true,it will disclose only consensual relationship on the initiative taken by the woman intended to trap the accused persons and to blackmail them in future, which will not constitute an offence under IPC 376, the petition said.