Kerala Court Grants Pre-Arrest Bail To Congress Councillor Booked For Sexually Harassing Woman, Abetting Her Suicide
A Sessions Court in Kerala granted anticipatory bail to General Secretary of Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee (DCC) and councillor of Neyyattinkara municipality Jose Franklin booked in an alleged case of sexual harassment where the woman went on to commit suicide.
Franklin was accused of offences under Sections 74 [Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty], 75(2)(i)(ii) [Sexual harassment], 62 [Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment], 64 [Punishment for rape], 78 [Stalking] and 108 [Abetment of suicide] of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). He is the sole accused in the crime registered with the Neyyatinkara police station.
The prosecution allegation is that the accused arranged for loans for the de facto complainant's mother and also made her believe that he could get her subsidies from municipality for her recently opened bakery. Then he asked her to come to his office with bills for claiming the subsidy and there, he caught hold of her, made sexual overtures and attempted to rape her. Thereafter, he frequently contacted her demanding sexual favours and due to his continues sexual harassment, the deceased left a suicide noted and lighted herself on fire.
The petitioner submitted before the Court that the deceased availed loan from the Neyyattinkara Ksheera Karshaka Sahakarana Sangham, in which the petitioner is the President and had also applied for financial assistance under the Small Scale Industries loan scheme from the Municipality.
He further stated that though he told the deceased the Municipality recently stopped issuance of such loans, she frequently contact him to arrange funds for her.
He took a contention that the false case was foisted against him by his political enemies.
The Court looked into the FIR as well as the suicide note, which is stated to have been left by the deceased. It noted:
"Allegedly, under the pretext of arranging a loan and a subsidy for self employment, the petitioner had attempted to sexually assault the deceased. Apparently, there is no complaint filed by the deceased as against the petitioner alleging sexual assault. There is no prima facie material to show the sexual allegation against the petitioner apart from the suicide note".
It also remarked that there is no specific allegation in the FIR against anybody and that the deceased apparently died out of burn injuries caused by a gas explosion. The Court further took note of the fact that there was no complaint made by the deceased against the petitioner alleging sexual assault and that the petitioner was arrayed only on the basis of the suicide note.
Sessions Judge Smt. Nazeera S said:
"A perusal of the suicide note would go to show that there was a direction to the defacto complainant to blackmail the petitioner on the basis of the suicide note. The acceptability of the suicide note is a matter of evidence...Apparently the deceased person was facing financial struggle. Whether the petitioner has abetted the commission of suicide by the deceased can only be decided on merits".
Though the petitioner had criminal antecedents, the Court thought it fit to grant him pre-arrest bail on conditions. Thus, it allowed the anticipatory bail plea.
Case No: Crl.M.C. No. 3015 of 2025
Case Title: Jose Franklin J. v. State of Kerala and Anr.
Counsel for the petitioner: S. Pramod, Pramod Kumar G.S., Pradeep N.R.
Counsel for the respondents: Dr. T. Geenakumary - Public Prosecutor