Kasaragod: After three days of hearing, Kasaragod sessions court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Sruthi Chandrashekar (32), accused of defrauding male police officers, bankers, and gym trainers of lakhs of rupees by cooking up stories of terminal illness or proposal to marry them, and then slapping rape charges against them if they asked for the money back.
She is accused of often posing as an ISRO employee, Income Tax sub-inspector, civil service aspirant or bank employee. The court rejected her anticipatory bail plea on a criminal case filed by Akhilesh P M. He said he met Sruthi on Instagram and accused her of taking Rs 1 lakh in small amounts and a gold chain weighing 8 gm from him, claiming her mother-in-law had cancer. When he realised he was being deceived and demanded the money back, she allegedly threatened to file a case of sexual assault against him.
On his complaint, Melparamba Police booked her under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating using fake documents) and 405 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Two advocates privy to the bail plea arguments stated that during the initial two days of hearing it appeared that the First Information Statement (FIS) of Akhilesh was very weak and without evidence.
"But she was done in by her claim that she was an employee of ISRO," said one of the lawyers.
Her lawyer Shajjid Kammadam argued that Akhilesh had sexually abused her minor son and he filed a false case against her to deter her from pressing charges under the POCSO Act against him.
Sruthi told the court that Akhilesh was framing her in a fake case in connivance with Sub-Inspector of the women's cell Deepthi and Sujith, a Kanhangad-based gym trainer, against whom she pressed rape charges in Mangaluru in May.
Her lawyer also argued that the police were particularly hostile towards her because she had pressed rape charges against a civil police officer in Thrissur.
The police officer's father filed a case against her under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at Melparamba police station. She said the case was a "counterblast" to her case against his son, and the High Court stayed the proceedings. Despite the stay order, the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Special Mobile Squad which investigates atrocity cases against SC and ST people, and four civil police officers came to her house with the Thrissur police officer's father. Sruthi filed a writ petition against the five police officers in the High Court.
Against this backdrop, "the police will use third degree method in case she is arrested" in Akhilesh's case, her advocate told the court.
Her advocate also appealed to the court that Sruthi's husband was in Dubai, and there was no one else to take care of their two minor sons if she was arrested.
"The police had no evidence to file an FIR, let alone arrest her in Akhilesh's complaint," said the lawyer.
Akhilesh's advocate K Shreekanth said Sruthi chose to play the victim card on the first two days of the hearing. However, he exposed her story by producing her handwritten and signed First Information Statement to Mangaluru's East police in the rape case against the gym trainer Sujith.
"It said 'I am working as a technical assistant in ISRO in Thiruvananthapuram'," said Shreekanth.
The sessions judge asked her advocate what he had to say about it. "He said it was an inconsequential misrepresentation. But her handwritten statement claiming to be an ISRO employee demolished her credibility," said a lawyer who was in the court. The judge rejected Sruthi's bail application.
Her lawyer later said, "We are moving the High Court for bail."
