KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by actor Dileep, the eighth accused in the actor assault case, seeking a directive to furnish a copy of the content and transcript of a memory card in which the alleged footage of the sexual assault were reportedly saved. The court observed the memory card produced in the case is in the nature of a material object.
It is not a document as contemplated under CrPC Section 207 (Supply to the accused copy of police report and other documents). Senior Government Pleader Suman Chakravarthy said furnishing a copy of the memory card will amount to serious transgression into the right of privacy of the victim. There was a likelihood of the details being leaked out. The memory card was not a document under the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Evidence Act. The crux of the prosecution allegation is the offence was committed for the purpose of recording it on a medium. The contents of the memory card were purported to be established on the production of the card.
The act of sexual abuse is to be established by the oral testimony of the victim and witnesses. It is not the information derived from the memory card which the prosecution seeks to establish. The prosecution is trying to establish the alleged sexual abuse was committed and the same was recorded. The memory card itself was the end result of the crime. It is then a material object and not a documentary evidence. Hence, it does not come within the ambit of CrPC Section 207, the prosecution contended. Dileep challenged the order of the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Angamaly, dismissing a plea by the actor seeking a directive to hand over to him the cloned copy of the content and transcript of the memory card. The court, however, stated this order will not preclude the trial court from permitting the accused to watch the memory card only in court subject to restrictions to prepare a defence.