KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday sought a response from the state government on a plea filed by the survivor in the 2017 actor assault case seeking an SIT probe into the alleged illegal access to a memory card containing images of the crime.
Justice CS Dias accepted the petition and issued notice to the state government, giving it time to file its counter affidavit within one month.
Justice Dias also directed the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court to send, in a sealed cover to the Registrar General of the Kerala High Court, the memory card and flash drive containing photographs and reports of the investigation conducted earlier.
The sealed cover will be retained by the Registrar General until further orders, the Supreme Court said.
It issued the direction saying that the petitioner, represented by senior advocate Vrinda Grover, has made a prima facie case for an interim order.
Earlier this week, two different Supreme Court justices declined to hear the case.
The survivor has sought a fresh investigation by a Special Investigation Team, under the supervision of the Supreme Court, into the alleged leak of the contents of the memory card and flash drive.
In 2022, the survivor approached the Kerala High Court claiming that the memory card containing images of the assault had been accessed illegally.
Subsequently, in 2023, the Supreme Court directed the Chief District Court, Ernakulam, to conduct an investigation into the allegation.
It has been alleged that there was unauthorized access to the memory card while it was in the custody of the Ernakulam Magistrate and Sessions Court before the commencement of the trial.
Last year, the Principal District and Sessions Court, Ernakulam, acquitted actor Dileep in the case.
However, the court convicted six people who were found to have directly participated in the kidnapping and sexual assault.
The case relates to the kidnapping and sexual assault of an actress in a moving car while she was traveling from Thrissur to Kochi on February 17, 2017.
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