Actor Aju Varghese on Tuesday filed a petition in the Kerala High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered on a charge of revealing the identity of the female actor in the sexual assault case.
He had also produced an affidavit signed by the female actor saying that she did not have any objection to the court quashing the criminal case slapped on him under Section 228 A of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) (disclosing the identity of victim). According to her affidavit, Mr. Varghese had long been her good friend. His acts were without any mala fide intention. Besides, she had “forgiven him”. She believed that Mr. Varghese had only “earnest intentions to protect my reputation and he did not have any malicious intention to tarnish my reputation”.
In his petition, Mr. Varghese pointed out that while extending support to the actor in his Facebook post, he had mentioned her name. He had later apologised for disclosing her identity when he realised that it was illegal to reveal the identity of a victim in a sexual assault case. He also said that he had no intention to tarnish the reputation of the actor.
