Kerala court rejects Dileep’s plea for copy of third party visuals on accused’s phones

The court has said that Dileep’s counsel can view the visuals in court, in the presence of an expert, if need be.

news Actor Assault Case

The Additional CBI Special Court in Ernakulam on Wednesday rejected the plea filed by actor Dileep to get a copy of visuals of third parties that are on the phones of the persons accused in the actor assault case. Dileep is one of the accused in the 2017 Kerala actor assault case, where a leading female Malayalam actor was abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving vehicle in Kochi, and he is also accused of masterminding the crime to exact a ‘personal revenge’ against the survivor.

In order to delay the trial against him, Dileep had sought access to digital content, including private visuals and photos, seized from the mobile phones and computers of the accused persons. However, the visuals Dileep has asked for are not related to the actor assault case but are related to people who are not connected to the case. The court had in the previous hearing also questioned Dileep’s counsel why they are demanding access to visuals that are not part of the case in any way.

However, despite this, Dileep has been demanding access to a copy of all the content. On Wednesday, hearing his plea, Justice Honey M Varghese rejected Dileep’s demand, stating that ‘if necessary, the defence advocate with or without the presence of an expert can examine the visuals in court.’

The prosecution had earlier stated that Dileep’s demand for the visuals that were not related to the case was part of his delay tactics to prolong the trial proceedings.

Recently, the Supreme Court had also rejected Dileep’s plea to get a copy of controversial visuals of the actor being assaulted. Instead, SC had said that Dileep can examine the visuals at the trial court in the presence of an expert.

It has been 10 days since the Supreme Court said this, however, Dileep has been trying to delay the case and has failed to produce an expert for examining memory card visuals to the court. On Wednesday too, Dileep asked the trial court for more time to find an expert.

Responding to this, Justice Honey M Varghese ordered that details of the expert be produced before court by December 16. The judge also made it clear that the process of examining visuals and the time taken for it will not, by any chance, "become a hindrance in framing charges against the accused."

The preliminary hearing of the defence in the case was held in a closed court on Wednesday. Speaking after the in-camera proceedings, prosecution lawyer A Sureshan said that court will allow the defence to examine controversial memory card visuals on December 18.

The court also cancelled the fresh bail petitions filed by five accused, including first accused Pulsar Suni.

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More than 1,500 rape cases registered in Kerala till September 2019