In what comes as a major setback to Malayalam actor Dileep, who is the eighth accused in the controversial case where a woman actor was abducted and allegedly sexually assaulted in 2017, the Kerala High Court dismissed his petition seeking visuals of the crime.
The HC dismissed his plea on Tuesday, saying that the visuals of the assault cannot be handed over to Dileep. This, after the prosecution strongly argued against handing over the visuals to the accused actor, citing the survivor's right to privacy. The court accepted the argument, thereby dismissing Dileep's plea.
Dileep approached the HC earlier this year, after the Angamaly Magistrate court dismissed his petition seeking visuals of the assault. The court did not entertain his plea for custody of assault visuals, but directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to hand over CCTV footage of the woman actor's car being driven from Thrissur to Kochi, when the crime happened.
Earlier hearing Dileep's petition, the HC had asked him why he wanted to access the assault visuals. Dileep had then claimed that he had the right to access all the evidence in the case. While Dileep's lawyer was shown the visuals as mandated by law, Dileep proceeded to file petition seeking custody of the visual.
Dileep is accused of allegedly conspiring to attack the woman actor and hired the prime accused Pulsar Suni and other accused to carry out the crime. The woman actor was attacked in February 2017, while she was traveling in her car from her home in Thrissur to Kochi.
The setback for accused actor Dileep comes at a time, when the trial in the case is set to begin.