A week after her petition to transfer her case to another judge was rejected for a second time by the Kerala High Court, the survivor in the 2017 actor assault case has moved the Supreme Court with a similar request. The survivor has alleged in her petition that one of the main accused in the case has connections with the trial court judge. She has also stated that the police have sufficient evidence to prove this connection and that the trial court judge has acted in a prejudiced manner.
Last week, the High Court rejected the petition, saying that the survivor might be influenced by the "media trial" of the case. While passing the order, Judge Ziyad Rahman AA said that the survivor's apprehensions were not reasonable, and that the discussions and debates of news channels about the case had "created some wrong perceptions about the trial".
The petitioner argued that an audio clip aired on certain channels, of a purported conversation between a family member of actor Dileep (the 8th accused) and another lawyer, mentioning Judge Honey was ground enough to transfer the case out.
Citing previous instances of the survivor requesting a change of judge, the court said that she has been sceptical about the case proceedings from the beginning. The survivor had initially asked for a woman judge to hear the case, after which Judge Honey Varghese took over the proceedings in early 2019. The survivor had later filed a petition for transfer of judge, alleging bias, the court said.
The survivor, a prominent woman actor in south India, was attacked in a moving car in Kochi in February 2017. She was abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of men led by Pulsar Suni, and the attack was video recorded. Months later, actor Dileep was arrested in the case, as the eighth accused and the alleged mastermind of the attack. In the survivor’s petitions requesting a transfer of the judge, she has alleged a connection between Judge Honey and Dileep, and attached audio conversations between the two parties to prove it.