Actor rape case: Kerala HC judge recuses from plea over alleged leak of assault visuals

Kerala High Court judge Justice Kauser Edappagath, on Tuesday, June 14, recused from hearing a petition filed by the Crime Branch against the trial court order in the actor assault case, in which Malayalam actor Dileep is an accused. The Crime Branch, which is probing the case, had approached the High Court challenging the lower court order halting the probe into the alleged leak of evidence from the court during the trial.

The Crime Branch stated that a memory card, which was crucial evidence in the case and was submitted before the court, was forwarded to the forensic laboratory, but was found with a change in the hash value of the card, which indicated unauthorised access.

The trial court had halted the inquiry in this regard against which the Crime branch had moved the High Court. On June 3, the High Court had granted an extension to the Crime Branch —  till July 15 —  to complete the investigation into the 2017 actor assault case.

Justice Kauser had recently recused himself from hearing another petition by the survivor actor, about her concerns in the investigation. The survivor actor had moved the High Court over the investigation into the case and the prosecution had submitted that there was a leak of the memory card containing the visuals of the sexual assault from the Principal Sessions Court in Ernakulam when Justice Edappagath was then the judge of the court. 

The survivor actor, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and sexually assaulted in her car by some persons who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017, and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by those persons to blackmail the actor. There are 10 accused in the 2017 case, including actor Dileep who is said to be the mastermind of the case, and police have arrested seven. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail. 

Further investigation in the case was launched by the police following fresh revelations by director Balachandra Kumar, who used to be Dileep’s friend. Balachandra Kumar had claimed that the accused actor was in possession of the visuals of the sexual assault before the lawyers and the actor watched it in the magistrate’s court in December 2017.