The convict in the Suryanelli case, Dharmarajan, has said he had taken P.J. Kurien in his car to Kumily to meet the Suryanelli girl on Februay 19, 1996. He dropped Kurien at the Kumili Guest House where the victim was exploited, he said, but added the name Baaji did not refer to Kurien.
Dharmarajan, now absconding after he jumped bail, spoke to a TV channel from an undisclosed location in Mysore on Monday morning.
“Kurien had travelled in my ambassador car to the Kumily guest house.
Why should I tell a lie,” he told the channel. He also said investigation officer Siby Mathews had asked him not to reveal the role of Kurien in the case, but another investigation officer, K.K. Joshua, had asked him to reveal the name. “It was due to Kurien’s influence that he avoided appearing for the identification parade,” Dharmarajan said. But both Kurien and probe chief Siby Mathews rebutted the charge.
Dharmarajan was a lawyer by profession and was the only accused convicted by the Kerala high court in 2005 while it cleared 34 others earlier held guilty by Suryanelli special court. Dharmarajan said he would surrender in the next few days. He also did not spare NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair for his testimony that Kurien had visited the NSS headquarters at Perunna and spent considerable time with him there that evening — by way of “proof” that Kurien had not gone to Kumili. Dharmarajan claimed that the khadi-clad Baji was not Kurien.
Meanwhile, Siby Mathews said Dharmarajan’s revelations were aimed at creating confusion.