The prosecution plea for sending the memory card in which the alleged rape of the actor was recorded for forensic analysis was dismissed by the Special Court three weeks ago. The court decision dismissing the petition was known when the case was considered on Thursday.
The order turning down the plea of the investigation officer attains significance in the wake of the complaint of the survivor to the Kerala High Court early this week that the trial court had not acted on the petition of the investigation officer on April 4, 2022, to send the memory card to the Forensic Science Laboratory to ascertain whether any of its folders were accessed after February 18, 2017, and to furnish a copy of the file properties of all the files and folders of the card.
Incidentally, the Special Judge had earlier asked the prosecution to convince the court about the need to send the card for analysis once again after pointing out that four analyses reports were earlier obtained from the lab on the same set of questions.
The Special Judge noted that the order was despatched to the station house officer of the Nedumbassery police station on May 12 as the prosecution had not collected the copy of the order from the court. The court expressed its displeasure to the prosecution for not collecting the order, though the Assistant Public Prosecutor K. B. Sunilkumar stated that he was unaware of the order.
The petition was dismissed after citing the reasons. It was not the responsibility of the court to ensure that the prosecution collected the orders, the Special Judge said. The court also asked the prosecution why no enquiries were made regarding the fate of the petition.
The copy of the order would be available in the public domain only after the completion of the trial, as contemplated in the Criminal Procedure Code, legal sources said.
On the day, the judge examined the recorded sound clips, which the prosecution said, revealed that the accused had tried to influence people, including the judge.
Referring to a conversation in the sound clip where the accused was heard stating that he shall deal with her, the judge asked whether the accused had stated that he shall try to influence the judge.
While Mr. Sunilkumar stated that though there was no such reference, one could infer so. He also added that the prosecution did not harbour a feeling that the judge could be influenced.
The court posted the case for May 31.
