Kasaragod: An advocate, who took up the case of a woman embroiled in a divorce and domestic violence battle, is accused of repeatedly raping, sodomising, and stalking her, sending shock waves through the legal fraternity of Kasaragod.
Kasaragod Vanitha Police have pressed charges of repeated rape (Section 376 (2) (n) of IPC) and criminal intimidation (Section 506 of IPC) against Adv Nikhil Narayan following the complaint filed by the woman.
On June 25, she also filed a detailed complaint against the lawyer with the Kasaragod Bar Association. The association sent a notice to him and he replied denying all the allegations. "We did not want to jump the gun and make a decision that would be overturned in the court. So we served him the notice," said Adv Pradeep Rao M, secretary of Kasaragod Bar Association.
The 34-year-old woman said her lawyer sexually assaulted her from January 2023 to April 2024 after promising to marry her.
Adv Nikhil Narayan is married to a lawyer in Palakkad but allegedly told the woman that he, too, was going through a divorce and the case was pending before the Palakkad Family Court. "He had filed no divorce petition before the Family Court," said Adv Rao.
On June 28, she submitted a complaint to the Kasaragod district police chief P Bijoy. The police did not act on her complaint. Neither did the bar association forward her complaint to the police.
After she filed the complaint with the district police chief, around five goons and Adv Nikhil Narayan's parents came to her flat, created a ruckus and asked her to leave the house, she said.
On July 1, police officers from the Vanitha Station came to her home and recorded her statement. On July 2, they asked her to come to the station to record her statement, for the third time. "I went at 6 pm and was at the police station till 10.45 pm," the woman said.
Though the police got the information on the assault on June 28, the FIR stated the information was received only at 8.30 pm on July 2.
The woman said that Sub-Inspector K Ajitha, the Station House Officer of the Women's Police Station, however, ignored her complaint that she was sodomised and that her lawyer breached professional ethics and conduct, and assaulted her.
Countering the woman's version, Ajitha said that she had recorded everything the complainant said on July 2 in the FIR. "If she has more charges against the accused, we will consider them as part of the investigation. Today, I have got the confidential statement she gave before the magistrate. We will consider that too. We have called her to record her statement again tomorrow," the officer said.
Adv Nikhil Narayan's phone is switched off.
The woman told Onmanorama that she contacted Nikhil Narayan in connection with her divorce in November 2022. "With his help, I filed a domestic violence case in the chief magistrate's court and a divorce petition in the Kasaragod Family Court," she said.
She said one day in January 2023, the lawyer came to her house seeking her signature on documents related to her cases and forced himself on her. "After that, he started coming home frequently and repeatedly raped me," she said. The woman survivor said the lawyer had sodomised her in his office bedroom. "I told this to the woman sub-inspector, the district police chief and the magistrate," she said. However, the FIR does not mention Section 377 of the IPC. "The police officer refused to record my statement," she said.
The voice messages and screenshots of Adv Narayan's messages, shared by the survivor, testified to the toxic relationship. Onmanorama has not independently verified the authenticity of these messages.
When her husband agreed to end the differences and live with her, the lawyer allegedly threatened to kill her, she said in the complaint to the police. When her father considered looking for another groom for her, he allegedly threatened to kill him also.
In October 2023, the woman said, his parents agreed to him marrying her. "And I agreed to his demand to move into a flat owned by him near Kasaragod town," she said. By April, he started distancing himself from her saying his wife had come back and asked her to move out of the house.
On May 15, the woman slashed her wrist and consumed excess doses of various drugs. The neighbours called in the police, who kicked open the door and took her to the hospital.
The woman claimed that he pleaded and threatened her not to mention his name in her statement to the police. "If the charges are true, the advocate stands guilty of professional misconduct," said Adv Rao.