THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sobha Viswanath, a young entrepreneur in the city, can now finally heave a sigh of relief with the police giving her a clean chit in a drugs case wrongfully filed against her in January.
All she did was to turn down a marriage proposal and what followed were events that almost destroyed her personal and professional lives.
The suitor took revenge by trapping her in a narcotic case and getting her arrested by police.
His conspiracy was revealed in a police crime branch probe after Viswanath approached the chief minister seeking justice.
As per the crime branch report submitted before the judicial first class magistrate-III, the main accused is Harish, the son of the founder and chairman of a prominent hospital in the city.
Harish is a UK-based businessman.
Vivek Raj, a former employee of Sobha Viswanath has also been arraigned as an accused in the case.
It was on January 21, the officers of Museum police station seized 480gm of ganja from Sobha Viswanath’s clothing store, Weavers Village, at Vazhuthacaud following a raid.
Viswanath was not present when the search took place.
Police later summoned her to the store and recorded her arrest.
“My employees were also in the store.
But the police did not care to consider the possibility that one of them might have placed it in the store.
Instead, they took me into custody,” Sobha Viswanath said, adding that this made her suspicious about the possibility of a conspiracy.
Since the ganja seized was less than a kilogramme, she was allowed get a station bail.
Two months later, she filed a petition before the CM.
Sobha Viswanath, 35, said that Harish was a family friend.
She has been living separated from her husband for six years ago and her divorce case is pending before court.
Following her separation from her husband, Harish, who was also a divorcee, expressed his wish to marry her.
Since she had come out of an unhappy marriage, she was not willing to take another risk and hence, turned down his proposal.
“This was two years before my arrest.
After that I had no contact with that person,” she said.
She did not hide her disbelief that he was spending all that time hatching plans to trap her.
The probe was conducted by DSP S Amminikuttan.
The probe team had found some suspicious movements of a maid while examining the surveillance camera footage of the store.
On questioning, she revealed the involvement of Vivek.
He had visited the store once and asked the maid to turn off the cameras.
Later, Vivek showed the probe team more ganja hidden in the store’s bathroom, which the local police could not find.
Following this, his arrest was recorded.
Harish is yet to be arrested.
The maid is also yet to be arraigned in the case.