Dileep case: Assaulted actress moves Kerala High Court for SIT probe into unauthorised access of memory card

The survivor in the 2017 actress assault case has moved the Kerala High Court seeking a court monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the State police into the alleged unauthorised access of the memory card with visuals of the assault when it was in the custody of the trial court. [XXXX v State of Kerala & Ors].Apart from the request for the SIT probe, the survivor-actress has also sought copies of the statements given by various persons to the sessions judge who had previously conducted an enquiry into the alleged unauthorised access.Justice K Babu allowed this request and directed the sessions judge to hand over copies to the survivor. However, the request for the SIT will be considered at a later date. .In 2017 the survivor-actress was allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving vehicle by several persons, allegedly at Malayalam cine actor Dileep's behest. The trial in the case is underway before the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court.The actress had moved the High Court in 2022 alleging that the memory card which holds visuals of the attack and which was seized as evidence, was accessed, copied and transmitted without authorisation. In December last year, the High Court had directed the Ernakulam District and Sessions Judge to conduct a fact-finding enquiry into these allegations.Once the enquiry was conducted, the survivor had to approach the High Court again to get access to the fact-finding report and the High Court directed the Sessions Court to provide a copy of the report..The survivor-actress subsequently filed the present application alleging that the fact finding enquiry headed by the sessions judge was not conducted in "a fair, free and complete" manner as directed by the High Court.She contended out even though the High Court had permitted the judge to take the assistance of the police or other expert agencies, the same was deliberately avoided by the judge.She also alleged that she was kept away from the enquiry and was not even allowed to make any written submission. She, therefore, sought a fresh probe by an SIT under the supervision of the High Court. Senior Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, who appeared for the survivor today, argued that the entire enquiry was vitiated and that the sessions judge had chosen to conduct it in-camera even though there was no direction to that effect from the High Court. However, the High Court said that it doubted whether this application would be maintainable or whether it would be more appropriate to file a separate petition as a new cause of action seems to have arisen. .The survivor also moved a separate application seeking a copy of the statements given by the persons who were examined in the enquiry. Advocate Philip T Varghese who appeared for Dileep vehemently opposed the application. He alleged that the survivor actress had leaked the fact-finding report to the media after it was given to her and that allowing her to access the statements would severely affect the trial.However, the High Court found no reason to deny the request and directed the sessions judge to hand over a copy of the statements. .The matter will be considered next on May 30. .[Read Order]