KOCHI, MAY 8: The Peermedu Judicial First Class Magistrate Court yesterday found Congress leader and former Union minister P J Kurien prima facie guilty in the Suryanelli sex scandal case. Judicial first class magistrate G Girish, while giving his verdict after the hearing on a private complaint lodged by the victim of the scandal, said Kurien could be implicated in the case.The court has asked Kurien to appear before it on June 7 next. Kurien, who represented Mavelikkara constituency in Kerala in the dissolved 12th Lok Sabha, was the Chief Whip of the Congress.In her complaint, the girl from Suryanelli had alleged that Kurien had sexually harassed her at the Kumily panchayat rest house on February 19, 1996. Though she did not recognise him then, later she identified him from a photograph published in the Mathrubhumi on March 26, 1996.On March 28, the girl's father submitted a petition to the then chief minister A K Antony, with a submission by the victim that she had identified that one of theassailants was Kurien, who was called `Baaji' in the deposition.The latest in the series of unsuccessful probes against Kurien was the one by the Idukki SP on the basis of an anonymous letter received by the Peermedu court. This also ended up in the exoneration of Kurien. Following this, the girl and her family lodged the private complaint in the Peermedu court with Kurien as the prime accused. The scandal, which erupted at the fag end of the Antony Government, was a major campaign point for the LDF during the 1996 general elections.
