Actor Assault Case| Kerala High Court Reserves Orders On Crime Branch's Plea Seeking More Time To Complete Further Investigation

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday reserved its orders on the plea moved by the Crime Branch seeking more time to conclude the further investigation in the 2017 sexual assault case.Justice Kauser Edappagath heard all the parties elaborately before reserving orders in the case. Notably, Advocate TB Mini appearing for the survivor actress had submitted that the Judge may avoid the hearing, as he had earlier recused from hearing the survivor's plea seeking proper investigation and trial in the case. However, Justice Kauser declined this request noting that this was a plea for a time extension and that it should be heard by him. Senior Counsel B. Raman Pillai strongly opposed the application and submitted that the application for extension of time is manifestly attended with malafides and an abuse of process of law. The extension sought is intended to delay the disposal of the case and to harass Dileep, he submitted.Director-General of Prosecution T.A Shaji urged the Court to grant an extension to complete the investigation citing that they had to make every piece of evidence admissible, failing which the accused will challenge it as inadmissible before the trial court.The prosecution had approached the Court on April 8 seeking an extension to wind up the probe claiming that the said clips are highly necessary for proper adjudication of the case to satisfy the Court of the necessity to extend the time frame to complete the further investigation.The Court had earlier granted one more month's time after noting that the pendrive submitted by the prosecution earlier this month contained two folders containing three voice clips each which were apparently collected by the investigating officers during the course of further investigation and which required careful analysis.In 2017, a popular actress was abducted and raped in a moving vehicle pursuant to a conspiracy, allegedly plotted by Dileep. Being the 8th accused in the case, he is now undergoing trial before the CBI Special Judge.The case made headlines once again in 2022 when film director Balachandrakumar made shocking disclosures against the actor bringing out new allegations against him. Once these allegations came to light, the prosecution sought more time from the court to wind up its probe citing that a further investigation was necessary in light of the new disclosures.In the petition filed before the High Court, he had alleged that furtherance of this 'sham investigation' infringes the right of a fair trial and added that it is an abuse of the process of law.Dileep had accused the case to be a 'deliberate and calculated attempt' of the prosecution to sabotage the trial before the Special CBI Court. He has further pointed out that the impugned report containing new information was submitted by the Investigating Officer on 29th December 2021, the exact date when the Officer was scheduled to be examined as the last witness for the prosecution at the trial court.However, dismissing the plea, the Court ruled that Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not restrict the investigating agency from conducting a further probe into a crime when it is notified of new information. The Single Judge added that Dileep had failed to establish any grounds to quash the further investigation.Holding so, the Single Judge permitted the investigating agency to carry on with the further investigation. Nevertheless, it was directed that such investigation shall be completed and the further report be filed no later than April 15.Case Title: P. Gopalakrishnan alias Dileep v. State of Kerala & Anr.

Actor Assault Case| Kerala High Court Reserves Orders On Crime Branch's Plea Seeking More Time To Complete Further Investigation

Hannah M Varghese

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