The trial in the actor rape case, which was put on hold after the prosecution seeking time to move the Kerala High court for a change of court, may resume on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Special Court trying the case has scheduled to take up two petitions, one moved by actor Dileep, the 8th accused in the case, seeking action against media houses who allegedly published the proceedings of the in-camera trial and another one on the social media statements of some of the members of Women Collective in Cinema (WCC). A few members of the WCC had made social media statements against some actors, whom the WCC members claimed to have turned hostile during the trial.
Incidentally, A. Sureshan, the Special Public Prosecutor in the case, had moved the petition apprehending that the victims would not get “fair trial and justice” from the court.
He had submitted that the court was “highly biased, which is detrimental to the judicial system and to the entire prosecution.” He also apprehended that justice will be denied to the victim in the case if the case was tried before the present court.
The prosecution case is that the accused kidnapped the actor and raped her in a moving car. Actor Dileep has been accused of conspiring with the other accused in the case.
The Registry of the Kerala High Court has not interfered in the issue as it has not officially received the petition. On its part, the State government had not issued any directive to its prosecution wing in the Kerala High Court to move the petition for change of court, legal sources said.
Weighing the legal options in the case, judicial sources indicated that the prosecution may have to move the judicial side of the Kerala High Court if it was keen on a change of court, as raised in its petition.
At the same time, the trial court will have to be restart the proceedings in the case as scheduled earlier unless the prosecution formally informed the court that it had moved the High Court for changing the court. The trial court cannot afford to idle its time away as the Supreme Court had set a deadline for completing the trial, sources said.
