KOCHI:Actor and a victim in the sexual assault case in which actor Dileep is an accused on Monday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to conduct the trial in the case by a Session Court presided by a woman judge. She also sought a directive to set up a special court to try the case.
The Ernakulam Sessions Court had rejected her plea to transfer the case to a court of a woman judge for trial on the ground that there was no women additional Sessions judge in the Ernakulam district.
The victim filed the appeal challenging the order.
The plea stated Sections of the CrPC mandate that the trial under Section 376 (D) (a woman is raped by one or more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention) should be conducted as far as practicable by a court presided over by a woman.
The offences committed by the accused were unparalleled and unique in the criminal annals of the state and even the nation.It was an incident in which rape and other offences were committed, not out of uncontrolled lust but out of a diabolic criminal conspiracy in which goons were hired by the actor to sexually assault a hapless woman and get the act recorded on a mobile phone.
The petitioner said the Sessions Court had no jurisdiction or power to decide on a women judge.
The power could only be exercised either by the government or by the High Court, the plea stated.