Kerala High Court Reserves Order On Petitions Seeking Cancellation Of MLA Eldose Kunnappilly's Anticipatory Bail In Rape Case

The Kerala High Court on Monday reserved its order on the petitions seeking cancellation of the order granting anticipatory bail to Congress MLA Eldhose Kunnappilly in the case accusing him of rape and attempt to murder of a woman. 

Justice Kauser Edappagath, during the arguments today, said:

"Even in a case where 100 times you consent for sexual relations, if you do not give consent to the 101st time, it amounts to rape. No doubt".

The court also said: "Initially there was love, then rape, followed by certain consensual acts, and then love again. It appears to be an unusual story, but still, if any of those were not consensual, of course rape is effected. But all these sequences of events have to be read together". 

The Court observed that Section 376 IPC was added later to the case in the additional statement. "That shows that this sexual assault was nowhere in the picture in the earlier stage. It was not in the FIR either". 

The Additional Sessions Court at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala had earlier granted anticipatory bail to the MLA. ASJ Prasun Mohan in the order said the victim or rape survivor in her first complaint dated September 28 never "asserted" that the accused raped her "on any dates before the date of presenting the complaint". The survivor was well aware of the fact that the accused is a married man maintaining a family relationship, the court had said.

Case Title: State of Kerala v. Eldose Kunnappilly