Congress legislator Eldhose Kunnappilly managed to get anticipatory bail in a rape and attempt to murder case, even though he had attempted to influence the key witness in the case.
While granting Kunnappilly relief, the court asked him to surrender his phone and passport to the police and to be present before the probe officer on Saturday. Kunnappilly has been on the run for the past 11 days, since a woman approached the police and lodged a complaint against him.
The woman, a private school teacher, levelled rape charges against the Congress MLA and also told the police that he tried to push her down from a so-called ‘suicide point’ at the famed beach destination-Kovalam.
The woman had charged that Kunnappilly had taken her to several places, physically abused her and promised to marry her. The two-time MLA is married and settled in Perumbavur, the assembly constituency that he represents since 2016.
After absconding, Kunnappilly posted on social media that he was ‘innocent and being framed’.
What has shocked many observers is that the court gave the MLA anticipatory bail despite his attempt to intimidate a key witness in the case through WhatsApp. In his message to the witness, a friend of the rape victim, the MLA threatened that “Jesus will give a fit reply to you and your family for cheating an innocent person like me”. It was being assumed that he will face a setback in his anticipatory bail plea after this attempt to influence a witness.
The Congress party also found itself in a tight position over the case of its legislator, who went into hiding. State Congress president K. Sudhakaran on Thursday said the reply of the legislator has come and since he is travelling he is yet to see it and once he reads it, he will speak with seniors in the party and then take a decision.
Incidentally, Kunnappilly in his explanation to the party had claimed that he has done ‘no wrong’ and the complainant is one who has quite a number of cases registered against her. On Monday, he failed to turn up to cast his vote for the presidential poll to elect a new president of his party.
The complainant heard the news of the legislator getting bail, while the police was taking her statement from a rented house of the legislator in Ernakulam district where she has alleged she was taken to by him in the past.
“I don’t have anything to say about the news that he has got bail. I stick to my complaints,” said the woman to the media.
(With IANS inputs)
