india

Updated: Jun 24, 2019 19:50 IST

A week after a 32-year-old woman from Mumbai filed a case of rape and breach of trust against Binoy Kodiyeri, son of the CPI (M)’s Kerala unit’s secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, she came out with what she claimed was fresh evidence against the accused on Monday.

In an interaction with Malayalam television channels, the woman released a copy of her son’s birth certificate which states that Binoy is the father. The birth of the son was registered in Mumbai Municipal Corporation in 2010. Her passport also carried the spouse’s name as Binoy Vinodini Balakrishanan and the woman also shared the copy of an advertisement that was published in a local newspaper in Mumbai. She also showed photographs and details of monthly payments credited by him in her bank account to buttress her claim.

In her complaint to Mumbai police on June 13, the woman who once worked in a dance bar in Dubai, said Binoy had been sexually exploiting her for years and that she has a nine-year-old son out of this relationship. The woman said Binoy had promised that he would marry her but it turned out to be a lie. She also did not know that he went on to marry someone else in Kerala.

Following her complaint at Oshiwara police station, Binoy was booked for rape and breach of trust and cheating. However, Binoy denied the allegations and accused her of blackmail but admitted he knew the woman when he worked in Dubai.

The woman has challenged Binoy to take a DNA test to determine the paternity of her son. She said Binoy had rented a house for her in Mumbai and they were living like a married couple for many years. She also said he threatened to kidnap the son if she filed a police complaint.

A Mumbai police team came to Kerala last week but Binoy who was then in Kannur, had given them the slip. Later he filed an anticipatory bail plea in Mumbai which will be taken up next week.

While the CPI (M) has ordered Balakrishnana not to help his son, the opposition Congress said he was aware of his hideout. Legal experts said Mumbai police can also make parents accused in the case on the ground that they arranged his marriage in Kerala despite knowing of his relationship with the dancer.

Balakrishnan has expressed his desire to quit the party post, but the CPM’s central leadership asked him to continue. The issue figured prominently in the state assembly also.

“The party can’t get away dubbing the case a personal one. The latest incident exposes the party’s double standard and inherent decay,” said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.

While the issue triggered a political storm in Kerala, Balakrishnan had called a press conference on Saturday and said he couldn’t take responsibility for his son’s actions and that he came to know about the incident only last week.

But a Kerala-origin advocate in Mumbai, P K Sreejith says he tried a settlement between the two parties and said he had a talk with Balakrishnan three months ago in this regard, puncturing a hole in his claim that he came to know about the case only last week after the aggrieved woman filed a case.