Actor Assault Case: Dileep Moves Supreme Court Seeking Completion Of Trial Within Time Limit

Contending that serious prejudice would be caused if the trial is delayed, the actor in the plea, along with requesting the Top Court to fix a time limit, has also urged for directing the trial court to not use the further investigation report dated July 22, 2022 for re-investigation or fresh investigation. He also seeks a direction to prohibit the recalling of witnesses for further examination.

The application has been filed as a Miscellaneous Application in the Special Leave Petition filed by him in 2018 seeking copy of the memory card, which allegedly contains the crime visuals. In November 2019, while disposing of the SLP, the Supreme Court had directed to complete the trial within 6 months.

It has been argued in the plea that the investigating agency, prosecuting agency and the prosecutrix by being hand in gloves are disrupting the trial towards the fag end by defeating Top Court's order and are making efforts for ensuring that the trial court judge does not pass the verdict.

The Actor in the plea has further argued that the prosecution has made attempts of "forum shopping" by preferring an application before the High Court to avoid the presiding officer who had recorded evidence of 207 witnesses. In this regard the plea further states that pursuant to the application, a lady judge was appointed but now the prosecutrix and the prosecution team wants to avoid her too.

"Media Trial is being held at the behest of the complainant and the petitioner is suffering gravely and his reputation is at stake. He is unable to carry out his professional obligations as an actor. His last movie was released only on OTT platform and could not be exhibited in a theatre due to the adverse campaign orchestrated by the investigating agency, the prosecutrix and their allies. The petitioner has suffered severe loss economically and his reputation has been tarnished beyond imagination. If the criminal trial against him which commenced on 30/01/2020 is dragged on by the prosecution endlessly he will be put to irreparable hardship and difficulty," the plea states.

To substantiate on the contention that there's not even a remote chance for the petitioner to comply with Top Court's direction, the petition states that the prosecution has now filed the further investigation report before the Magistrate Court which has no jurisdiction to take a supplementary report on its file when the case is being tried by a Sessions Court. It has also been stated in the plea that in the guise of filing further investigation report the investigating agency had produced voluminous records running to thousands of pages and many witnesses who were already examined as witnesses in the trial court are again questioned during the sham further investigation and they are cited as witnesses in the further investigation report.

The case relates to the kidnap and the sexual attack against a female actor in the outskirts of Kochi in February 2017. Dileep is alleged to be the mastermind behind the crime and is facing trial for criminal conspiracy. Recently, the trial court had allowed further investigation in the case on the basis of fresh allegations raised by film director Balachandra Kumar in December 2021.

Case Title: P Gopalkrishnan @Dileep v State of Kerala | M.A in Criminal Appeal No. 1794/2019