Lawyer accused of sexually abusing his client, Kasaragod Bar Association shaken

Kasaragod: A lawyer who took up the case of a woman involved in a divorce and battle with domestic violence is accused of repeatedly raping, sodomising and stalking her, sending shockwaves through the Kasaragod Bar Association.
Kasaragod Vanitha police have filed charges of repeated rape (Section 376 (2) (n) of IPC) and criminal intimidation (Section 506 of IPC) against Adv Nikhil Narayan following the woman’s complaint.

On June 25, she also filed a detailed complaint against the lawyer with the Kasaragod Bar Association. The association sent him a notice and he responded by denying all the allegations. “We did not want to be hasty and take a decision that could be overturned in court. So we served him the notice,” said Adv Pradeep Rao M, secretary of the Kasaragod Bar Association.

The 34-year-old woman alleged that her lawyer sexually abused her from January 2023 to April 2024 after he promised to marry her.

Adv Nikhil Narayan is married to a lawyer in Palakkad but allegedly told the woman that he too was seeking divorce and the case was pending in the Palakkad family court. “He has not filed any divorce petition in the family court,” said Adv Rao.

On June 28, she lodged a complaint with Kasaragod District Police Commissioner P. Bijoy. The police did not respond to her complaint. The Bar Association also did not forward her complaint to the police.
After she filed the complaint with the district police chief, about five goons and Adv Nikhil Narayan’s parents came to her residence, created a ruckus and asked her to leave the house, she said.

On July 1, police officials from Vanitha station came to her house and recorded her statement. On July 2, they asked her to come to the station for the third time to record her statement. “I went at 6 pm and was at the police station until 10.45 pm,” the woman said.
Although the police received information about the attack on June 28, the FIR stated that the information was received only at 8.30 pm on July 2.

The woman said that Sub-Inspector K Ajitha, the station house officer of the women’s police station, ignored her complaint that she had been anally abused and that her lawyer had violated professional ethics and conduct and assaulted her.

Ajitha contradicted the woman’s version and said she had recorded everything the complainant said in the FIR on July 2. “If she has any other charges against the accused, we will consider them during the investigation. Today I received the confidential statement she gave before the magistrate. We will consider that too. We have called her to record her statement again tomorrow,” the officer said.

Adv Nikhil Narayan’s phone is switched off.

The woman told Onmanorama that she contacted Nikhil Narayan in connection with her divorce in November 2022. “With his help, I filed a domestic violence complaint in the Supreme Court and filed a divorce petition in the Kasaragod Family Court,” she said.

She said one day in January 2023, the lawyer came to her house to ask her to sign documents related to her cases and forced himself on her. “After that, he frequently came home and raped me repeatedly,” she said. The survivor said the lawyer anally abused her in his office bedroom. “I told this to the sub-inspector, the district police chief and the magistrate,” she said. However, the FIR does not mention Section 377 of the IPC. “The police officer refused to record my statement,” she said.

The voice messages and screenshots of Adv Narayan’s messages shared by the survivor testified to the toxic relationship. Onmanorama has not independently verified the authenticity of these messages.

When her husband agreed to put aside their differences and live with her, the lawyer allegedly threatened to kill her, she said in the police complaint. When her father considered finding another groom for her, he allegedly threatened to kill him too.

In October 2023, the woman said, his parents agreed to his marriage. “And I complied with his demand to move to a flat owned by him near Kasaragod town,” she said. In April, he started distancing himself from her, saying his wife had come back and asked her to move out of the house.

On May 15, the woman slit her wrists and consumed excessive amounts of various drugs. Neighbors called the police, who kicked in the door and took her to the hospital.

The woman alleged that he begged her and threatened her not to mention his name in her statement to the police. “If the allegations are true, the lawyer is guilty of professional misconduct,” said Adv Rao.