A judge of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday recused himself from a hearing a petition by a woman who has accused Malayalam actor Dileep of sexually assaulting her, Live Law reported.
The woman, in her petition, alleged political interference in the matter and claimed that attempts were being made to derail the investigation into the case.
The complainant had also filed an application before the High Court registrar demanding that the petition should not be assigned to Justice Kauser Edappagath. Despite the application, the case was listed before the same judge.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the woman’s lawyer requested that some other judge should hear the case. In response to the request, Justice Edappagath recused himself from hearing the petition, PTI reported.
The case will now be heard by another judge on Wednesday.
The complainant, who is also an actor, has alleged that she was kidnapped and sexually abused inside her car for two hours on February 17, 2017. There are 10 accused persons in the case and initially, the police had arrested seven people. Dileep was also arrested subsequently but later released on bail.
The woman, in her petition before the High Court, accused the trial judge Honey Varghese of “serious misconduct” and alleged that she had an “agenda to save the culprits”, according to The News Minute. She alleged that the judge had sought a forensic report about a memory card of an accused person in the case, but did not inform the prosecution that she had sought such a report.
The complainant said that the Thiruvananthapuram Forensic Science Laboratory submitted a report to the court, but the judge kept it with herself without making an official entry in the court records.
“This is a serious misconduct committed by her [the judge] and it clearly shows that she has an agenda to save the culprits who have illegally accessed the same and accessed/tampered/transmitted the same,” the complainant said, according to The News Minute. “By keeping it secret whether she obtained any benefits is also to be investigated.”
The complainant said that she suspects that Dileep may have used his contacts in the government to ensure that the investigation is not completed.
“...It is reliably learned that the prosecution as well as the investigation agency are now threatened by the political higher-ups to end the investigation halfway and file the additional final report in a half-cooked manner,” her petition stated, according to PTI. “This clearly establishes the illegal nexus between the accused and the ruling front.”
The complainant said that the Kerala government had initially supported her case and took credit for the investigation, but has now backtracked from its legal commitment.
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