KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Monday rejected the plea of actor Dileep, the eighth accused in the 2017 actor abduction and sexual assault case, to adjourn the hearing on the survivor’s petition seeking a probe into the illegal access of the memory card till the trial court examination of two forensic officers is completed.
Dileep alleged that the intention of the prosecution and the survivor is to ensure that the judge, who has examined 258 witnesses thus far, delays a verdict. Meanwhile, Justice K Babu reserved his order on the petition filed by the survivor and appointed advocate Ranjith Marar as amicus curiae in the case. The amicus curiae has been directed to provide written suggestions on guidelines to be issued on preventing unauthorised access to sexually explicit materials in the custody of the court.
The survivor’s counsel sought a directive to the police to investigate the change in the hash value of the memory card and find out the persons who had unauthorised access to it. It had been established by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) that the hash value of the card had been altered while in the custody of the court.
He submitted that the memory card had been accessed three times. “In fact, It constituted a prima facie material to make out a cognizable separate offence... If somebody had illegally accessed the videos, taken out and viewed them, the fundamental right of the petitioner to privacy had been violated. The court should protect the petitioner’s fundamental right to privacy and should take the strictest action against those who had accessed it.
“The faith of the citizen in the judicial administration would be affected if sexually explicit videos were taken out while under the custody of the court,” the counsel said.
The counsel submitted that no one should be allowed to illegally access any document in the custody of the court. “It was more so in the case of a sealed video of the sexual assault of the petitioner. Normally, the police would have registered a case. But the police were unable to register a case here because the unauthorised access took place when it was in the custody of the court. If court officials or staff handed over the memory card to somebody else or provide access to a file, then they have committed a criminal breach of trust,” added the counsel for the survivor.