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Kochi Pocso case: Hotel No.18 owner surrenders before police
Kochi-based Hotel No. 18 owner Roy J Vayalat surrendered before the police a day after the Supreme Court refused to entertain his pre-arrest bail plea in a POCSO case.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the Supreme Court refused to entertain his anticipatory bail plea, the owner of Kochi-based luxury hotel, No. 18, Roy J Vayalat, who is facing a sexual assault case under the Prevention of children from sexual offences (Pocso) Act, surrendered before the police on Sunday.
However, the second accused, his accomplice Shaiju M Thankachan, is still at large. Earlier, the High Court granted pre-arrest bail to the third accused, Anjali Reema Dev. A senior police officer of Kochi said he will be produced in the court on Monday and they will seek his custody.
A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sanejeev Khanna and Justice Bela M Trivedi ruled that the court cannot intervene in the high court order that denied bail to them. It also observed that charges against the duo were serious in nature.
In the first week of February, the mother of a 17-year-year-old girl, hailing from Kozhikode (north Kerala), filed a complaint against the trio alleging that her daughter was sexually assaulted by Vayalat after summoning them to the hotel in the guise of a modelling contract in October last year. Both Thankachan and Anjali were present when the assault took place during a DJ party, she alleged in the complaint.
After the mother and daughter left the hotel, Anjali allegedly circulated the video and other photographs of the minor girl on social media and to others, she said in the complaint. Anjali is also facing another compliant for making the identity of the survivor public in a social media post.
Hotel No. 18 came to the limelight after a road mishap on November 1 last year, in which three, including former Miss Kerala Ansi Kabeer (25) and runner up Anjana Shajan (26) died following a car chase by alleged drug peddler Thankachan. Their friend M Ashiq (28) died a week later. “All three would have been alive if the chase was not there,” police said in the first information report (FIR). Both were arrested in the models’ death case but they secured bail later.
After new allegations against the controversial hotel came up, the relatives of the two deceased models sought a central agency probe into the case. Ansi Kabeer’s uncle A Nazim said a detailed inquiry is needed to unravel the truth.
