Thiruvananthapuram:
Kerala's Director General of Prosecution T Asif Ali has advised the state government against a re-investigation of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson PJ Kurien's role in the Suryanelli gang-rape case, sources said.
A woman from Suryanelli in Kerala's Idukki district was abducted in January 1996 and raped by 42 men over 40 days. She was 16 then and alleges that Mr Kurien was among those who assaulted her.
Mr Kurien, a Congress politician, was exonerated by the Supreme Court in 2007, but of late there has been a clamour for his resignation by the opposition in Kerala, which wants him re-investigated in the case.
Sources said Mr Ali, in his report, said the charges against Mr Kurien do not require a re-investigation.
Mr Kurien has refused to step down, saying he was cleared by the Supreme Court. He also wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Hamid Ansari, countering the allegations of rape.
The BJP has demanded Mr Kurien's resignation on moral grounds. "New revelations every day in the Suryanelli rape case has made PJ Kurien's position as Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha untenable," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
In 2005, Kerala High Court tried 35 men in the case and convicted only one man - a lawyer named Dharmarajan. Last month, the Supreme Court set aside the Kerala High Court's verdict and asked for a re-trial.