Almost 15 years after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Kerala took over the investigation of the 2004 Kaviyoor sexual assault case, the agency informed the court that it has reached a dead end as it has been unable to find the accused yet. The CBI submitted a petition in Kerala High Court and sought permission to close the case as they could not identify the main culprit due to lack of evidence. The case relates to the death of a 15-year-old girl who was the victim of a sex-for-money racket.
In September 2004, five members of a family — father, mother, their son and two daughters — were found dead in their rented house in Kaviyoor, Kottayam district of Kerala. Although their deaths were proved to be a case of suicide, it was found that the elder daughter was sexually assaulted a few hours before her death.
It was alleged that the only accused in the case — Latha Nair — had offered the victim several movie offers but was later subjected to sexual assault by several influential men. Latha, who was a close friend of the family, had also allegedly threatened them over some financial issues.
Although Latha was charged with abetment of suicide in the chargesheet, the CBI, in three reports, had said that the girl’s father, who was a temple priest, raped her. The agency also claimed that it was the father who forced the family to end their lives. The CBI reportedly assumed the father's involvement based on some witness statements.
However, due to the lack of scientific evidence, the court had dismissed these accusations.
In the postmortem, it was reportedly found that the girl was sexually assaulted prior to her death. However, the CBI said that the culprit could not be identified using scientific evidence as the case was handed over to them later and hence they could not collect the DNA samples, reported Mathrubhumi.
After the Special CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram rejected all three reports, the CBI filed the fourth report in 2018, in which it said there was no evidence to prove that the father was involved in the crime of sexual assault. This report, too, was rejected in January 2020 by the Special CBI court which asked the agency to continue the investigation.
It was also alleged that the sons of some political leaders were involved in the crime. It was journalist TP Nandakumar, the editor of Crime magazine, who had petitioned in the court, claiming that some VIPs (very important persons) were involved in the crime.