Actress Assault case: Kerala High Court Judge recuses from hearing Crime Branch plea

Kochi (Kerala) [India], June 14 (ANI): Justice Kauser Edappagath of the Kerala High Court recused from the hearing a petition filed by the Crime Branch of the state police challenging the order of the Ernakulam Additional Special Sessions Court which rejected its petition to forward the memory card allegedly containing the visuals of the crime for forensic examination.
The forensic examination was sought by the Crime Branch to confirm the illegal access of the memory card as suggested by the change in the hash value. The Crime Branch or the prosecution pointed out in its petition that the memory card and the files contained in it could have been opened several times. Moreover, a detailed forensic examination can only find out when it was opened the last time.
Though the changes made in the hash value were reported to the trial court on January 29, 2020, the same was not intimated to the prosecution till February 2022.
Earlier this month, Kerala High Court dismissed a petition challenging the transfer of S Sreejith, ADGP of Kerala Police from the post of Crime Branch Chief and supervising officer of the 2017 Actress Assault Case.
Division Bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly dismissed the petition of movie director Baiju Kottarakkara.
While dismissing the petition, the court made it clear that it cannot interfere in the state's matters.
State Government submitted the transfer order of Sreejith and the details of the new Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was formed recently.
Earlier, Kerala High Court had granted time till July 15 to the prosecution to conclude further investigation in the 2017 Actress Assault Case.
The case pertains that an actress, who worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films, was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of 17 February 2017. (ANI)