Kerala suicide abetment case: Hunt on for woman who accused bus passenger of harassment in viral video

KOZHIKODE: Medical College Police stepped up its efforts to trace the woman against whom it had invoked suicide abetment charges in connection with the death of Govindapuram native U Deepak, allegedly after a video she posted, accusing him of sexual harassment during a bus journey, went viral on social media. She had filmed Deepak during the bus journey and later shared the video on social media alleging that he had touched her inappropriately during a bus ride at Payyannur.Medical College Police had slapped suicide abetment charges against the woman following a complaint by Deepak's mother K Kanyaka. She had alleged that the woman had falsely implicated her son through the video. The woman is learnt to have gone into hiding after the police registered a case.Meanwhile, employees of the private bus named Al Ameen, in which the video was recorded, said the woman had not raised any complaint of sexual harassment during her journey. "We came to know about this issue only after the bus owner contacted us to ask whether any such incident had occurred. There was no complaint from any passenger," said bus conductor Ramakrishnan, adding that he later saw the video that went viral on social media. He noted that due to heavy crowding, the CCTV camera inside the bus was unlikely to have captured clear visuals of what transpired that day.Police had said that it was crucial to obtain the original video recorded by the woman as the clip uploaded on social media was very short and hence a detailed examination was required to authenticate it.Deepak's parents had demanded a thorough investigation and insisted that the woman should not be allowed to evade legal action. The incident had triggered widespread backlash and criticism against the woman, with several complaints filed seeking action against her.Taking cognizance of a complaint, state human rights commission (SHRC) directed the North Zone DIG to probe the case. SHRC judicial member K Byjunath directed that the probe report must be submitted within a week. SHRC will take up the case on Feb 19 during its sitting at PWD rest house in Kozhikode.