Man convicted of gang rape, sexual assault and robbery filed an appeal to the Supreme Court claiming that he was “wrongly convicted” in the case, despite the trial court’s observation that the victim . The convict, Niyaz Masthan (38), moved the apex court through his lawyers Renjith Marar and T K Nayak and sought acquittal in the case. Masthan, the sole bread earner of his family, has been in jail since 2015 February, when he was arrested by the police in the case.The trial court in Kerala sentenced Masthan to life imprisonment on July 18, 2016, although it said that the prosecutrix (victim) was not a sterling witness. Later, the Kerala HC upheld his conviction and sentenced him to 30 years of jail on June 12, 2024. Nayak, while talking to TNIE, said that there’s no evidence which proves his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. “One of the most striking elements is the medical evidence. The victim, claimed to have been gang-raped that too a total of 5 times and assault, yet the medical reports — specifically the Wound Certificate and Medical Certificate — contain no evidence of genital injuries or other physical signs of sexual assault. The absence of injuries in areas where the victim claimed to have been violently assaulted raises serious questions about the veracity of her claims,” Nayak said.Questioning the conviction in the case, Nayak said, “Why should he (Masthan) be in jail, without him committing any offence.”There were serious contradictions in the victim’s testimony and with significant alterations in her story over time. She initially claimed only one man had committed rape on her, whereas she later revised her statement to implicate all four accused including the Petitioner, Masthan, Nayak described.He, further making a hole in the prosecution story, revealed that the Test Identification Parade (TIP), a critical procedure in identifying suspects, was flawed beyond measure. “There was a 17-day delay between the petitioner’s arrest and the TIP, during which time the accused were paraded in open court. Photographs of the accused were allegedly shown to witnesses before the TIP, compromising the fairness of the identification process. Furthermore, the manner in which the TIP was conducted was also criticized for procedural defects, rendering the identification unreliable,” Nayak pointed out.The handling of crucial evidence has also come under heavy scrutiny. Allegations of tampering have emerged, with the petitioner’s defense pointing to substantial delays in the collection and forwarding of forensic samples, Nayak said. For instance, blood samples other crucial tests were not properly sealed or handled, creating the possibility that they could have been tampered with. “Additionally, blood samples collected from the accused showed inconclusive results, raising doubts about the link between the petitioner and the crime,” Masthan’s appeal said.The recovery was based on a ‘so-called confessional statement’ by the petitioner, but crucial witnesses testified that they had ‘not actually seen the ornaments being seized from his residence,’ the plea said.Perhaps the most shocking revelation involves the First Information Report (FIR), the document that set the entire legal process in motion. The FIR, a computer-generated document, was found to have been tampered with — its date overwritten, and its content altered. The first information statement only mentioned robbery, not the alleged horrific gang rape that was later brought to light, Nayak said.
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