The survivor in the Kerala actor assault case, on Monday, November 6, informed the Kerala High Court that she would not be moving forward with the allegations against trial court judge Honey M Varghese. The survivor had earlier approached the HC alleging that the judge acted with an agenda and that there was illegal access, tampering and possible transmission of the contents of the memory card in which the assault visuals were recorded. The survivor had also informed the court that except for the investigation into the alleged illegal access of the memory card, she had no other issues with the trial court judge. The case has been adjourned to November 9.
The survivor had approached the High Court in May last year alleging misconduct by Judge Honey Varghese. Her allegations included political interference in the case and the judge not releasing the forensic analysis report of the memory card. The survivor-actor was sexually assaulted in February 2017 by a man named ‘Pulsar’ Suni and his accomplices. The incident was videographed and stored on a memory card. The assault was allegedly masterminded by top Malayalam actor Dileep, who is the eighth accused in the case.
In 2022, when the investigation officers of the case conducted a search in Thiruvananthapuram Forensic Science Lab (FSL), they found that Judge Honey Varghese had sought a forensic report on the memory card from FSL. This report purportedly said that the memory card was accessed once illegally while it was in the custody of the Ernakulam Sessions court between March 2018 and March 2019. The prosecution had asked in court why the judge had not revealed to the investigating agency that she had gotten such a forensic analysis report. Following the raid, the judge said in open court that the report had been with her for the past two years but had not released the report. The survivor sought the HC to direct the trial court to send the pen drive for another forensic examination and for the police to investigate the tampering of evidence.
Read: Kerala actor rape case: Bhavana says judge acted with agenda, goes to HC