POCSO case: Syju Thankachan, friend of hotel owner, surrenders before police

PTI, Mar 14, 2022, 2:34 PM IST

Kochi: A day after city-based Hotel 18 owner surrendered before the police in a POCSO case, his friend, Syju M Thankachan, on Monday morning reached a city police station and surrendered.

Police said Thankachan surrendered on Monday and he was taken into custody. ”His arrest will be recorded soon,” police said. The duo surrendered after the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court denied any protection from arrest.

Hotel 18 owner, Roy J Vayalat, had on Sunday surrendered at the Kochi City Police Commissioner’s office after the Supreme Court on Friday denied any relief to him in his plea seeking anticipatory bail in the case.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court on March 8 had denied the relief to Vayalat and his friend Thankachan, saying that they are not entitled to anticipatory bail in view of the nature of allegations against them.

The High Court, however, granted anticipatory bail to co-accused Anjali Vadakkepurakkal for the reasons that she is a woman and aged 24 years. The three accused had alleged that the complaint of molestation and sexual assault against them by the minor’s mother was ”a deliberate attempt at blackmail”. The victim’s mother too had told the court that she, her daughter and the two other women were taken to Kochi on the false pretext of a business meeting and the intention was to take them to the two accused men. Hotel 18, Vayalat and Thankachan recently came in the news in connection with the deaths of three people, including two models, in a car accident which allegedly resulted as the latter was chasing them in his four-wheeler.

Models Ancy Kabeer (25) and Anjana Shajan (24) had died in the fatal crash on November 1 last year. A third passenger, in the car, succumbed to his injuries a few days later. According to the prosecution in that case, Thankachan had allegedly stalked the models from a bar to Hotel 18 and when they left that place to avoid him, he chased them.