Court grants
bail to Shiney

The high court granted him bail on a cash bond of Rs50,000. The court also told him not to travel abroad without permission and asked him to present himself before investigating agencies whenever he was required by them.

The actor was convicted on March 30 of raping his maid and sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment. While the complainant had turned hostile during the trial, the court had relied on circumstantial evidence while convicting Shiney. The maid first accused him of raping her in his apartment in Mumbai in June 2009. The actor was arrested after preliminary medical tests of the victim confirmed sexual assault. Four months later, the Bombay high court granted him bail.

But in September 2010, the maid told the trial court that she had not been raped, nor did she have intercourse with Shiney. She said she had been forced to give a false statement to the police at the behest of a woman who had got her the job and who had enmity with the actor. Though the maid turned hostile, the session’s court convicted Shiney on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com