Assault survivor says MLA Eldhose Kunnappilly offered Rs 30 lakh to settle case

According to the complainant, the incident that led to her complaint against MLA Eldhose Kunnappilly happened on September 14. Photo: Facebook/@Eldhose Kunnappilly

The teacher who complained against Perumbavoor MLA Eldhose Kunnappilly levelled more damning charges against him and also the police during a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

She said the CI, instead of going ahead with the case, attempted to bring about a compromise.

She said the senior police officer had also revealed her identity to the media. “I am a victim but he revealed my name and my place to certain news channels,” the woman said, her face veiled by a cloth.

She also said that it seemed to her that the CI was not keen on pursuing the case.

Though she filed the complaint on September 28, she said the Vizhinjam police kept delaying summoning the MLA and finally on October 9 asked her to go with Eldhose Kunnappilly to see a lawyer to thrash out a compromise.

She said the MLA had initially told the CI that he would settle the issue for Rs 20 lakh. Later, in front of a lawyer arranged by the CI on October 9, the figure was raised to Rs 30 lakh, she said.

The CI, who was not at the compromise meeting, asked her to send a WhatsApp message saying she had withdrawn her complaint. She did not.

According to her, the incident that led to her complaint happened on September 14. She said Eldhose came to her house near Kovalam fully drunk, thrashed her and pulled her out. “On that day the police were informed but not by me but by locals who witnessed him assaulting me,” the woman said. She said the MLA had then told the CI that she was his wife.

She alleged that later, on the same day, the MLA took her to the capital city and harmed her. She said she was taken to the General Hospital early morning on September 15. “And there too he said I was his wife,” the woman said.

The survivor said she had no intention of filing a complaint but was forced into it after relentless threats by the MLA and people close to him. “A local woman Congress leader first threatened me over the phone saying I would be implicated in a honey trap case and told me that she had my videos in her possession. Then a person called me saying he was a policeman. Later many people came for mediation. Even after all this, the MLA continued to trouble me,” she said.

The woman also said she felt so helpless that she had in between fled to Kanyakumari and attempted suicide. “Locals who saw me walking into the sea in Kanyakumari informed the police. The Tamil Nadu police then held me for a day. Then they put me on a bus to Nagercoil, hoping that I would return to Kerala. But I went to Madurai, not because I knew the place but just to be somewhere where I will not be harassed,” she said.

She came back after a female officer at Vizhinjam Police Station called her up and told her that she would be apprehended wherever she was.

The woman said she became close to Eldhose only last July though she was acquainted with him right from his first term as MLA. “I realised he was a bad man. He tried to breach my privacy. I somehow wanted to get out of this toxic relationship. He used violence to keep me subjugated,” she said.

When asked whether the MLA had abused her sexually, she withdrew from a direct answer. She merely said that she had given a confidential statement before the magistrate and would like to keep such things secret. “But I fully stand by the statement given to the magistrate,” she said.

Further, the woman said she would reveal more about Eldhose if he and his friends continued to harass her.

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