Kerala High Court Gives Approval To Re-Examine Witnesses, Summon Five New Ones

The Kerala government had filed a plea with the Kerala High Court seeking re-examination of three witnesses in the 2017 sexual assault case of a female actor. The court allowed challenging the trial court's judgement in the case and summoned five new witnesses.

The verdict was given by a single Bench of Justice Kauser Edappagath and the entire exercise of adducing additional evidence as per the order shall be concluded in 10 days.

The judge added, "The Director-General of Prosecution shall see that a new Special Public Prosecutor is deputed or some other alternative arrangement is made to conduct the case on behalf of the prosecution and ensure that the examination of the witnesses and production of the documents as allowed as per this order is done within a period of 10 days."

The court also ordered the witnesses to co-operate to complete additional evidence in the span of 10 days. The Kerala government had first approached the trial court in the case and then the High Court after Malayalam film director Balanchandra Kumar made new allegations against actor Dileep in the case. The actor is the eighth accused persons in the alleged sexual assault of a female actor of Malayalam film industry in 2017.

Suggested Reading: Kerala Court Restrains Arrest of Actor Dileep In 2017 Sexual Assault Case

Dileep was booked in a new case filed by the Kerala Police Crime Branch. Along with him, the police also booked five others on January for allegedly threatening the investigation officials in the case. The accused persons were booked under the sections of abetment of offence, concealing design to commit offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life, party to criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation and criminal act done by several people. The actor, Dileep, is the first person named in the FIR. His brother Anoop and brother-in-law Suraj are second and third accused in the case. Other accused persons are Appu, Chengamanad and Babu. The fifth accused is yet to be identified.

Some purported audio clips were released on television news channel wherein Dileep and other accused persons were threatening officials investigating the case. At the same time, director Balachandra Kumar also gave his statement against Dileep. The Deputy Superintendent of Police Baiju Paulose, an investigating officer in the case filed a complaint with the Kerala Police Crime Branch against Dileep. That is when the Crime Branch registered a fresh case against Dileep and five others.

The FIR of submitted in Court alleged that Dileep said the investigating officer Baiju Paulose and others such as Sandhya, Sojan and Sudarshan are "going to suffer". It was also alleged that Dileep threatened to chop off the hand of Sudarshan and another officer. In the said case from 2017, a female actor who worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam film industry was allegedly abducted and then molested inside her car by a group of men on the night of February 17, 2017.