Saritha Nair told judge she was raped by many

Kerala high court vigilance registrar reporting that the main accused Saritha S Nair had told additional chief judicial magistrate she was raped by many persons. Vigilance registrar S Mohan Das, in his report submitted to the HC, excoriated additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM, economic offences) N V Raju for having failed to record Saritha's statement and has recommended appropriate action against the ACJM. During the inquiry, the ACJM told the vigilance registrar that when asked if she was raped, Saritha said yes but he did not seek the detail from her. The report cited serious procedural lapses on the part of the ACJM but said the magistrate was not influenced by any 'external intervention'. To justify this, the vigilance registrar said the ACJM had continued the court proceedings after postponing the case. The report said the ACJM should have recorded Saritha's statement on July 20 itself, without adjourning the case. The ACJM should have given Saritha the required materials such as pen and paper to record the statement. The ACJM, again, erred in keeping Saritha's counsel Pheney Balakrishnan away from the process of recording statement. The vigilance registrar also criticized the ACJM's observations that media were making baseless inference about what Saritha had told the court. According to the registrar's report, when Saritha gave her oral statement to the ACJM on July 20, a woman constable, shirestedar (court clerk) and Saritha's counsel Balakrishnan were present. Balakrishnan and the court clerk told the registrar that Saritha only expressed concern about her family. The constable said she didn't hear anything as she was standing far. All of them told the investigator that Saritha didn't raise any charge of police harassment and issued a clean chit to the ACJM when asked whether he had restrained them from revealing what happened at the court.