The Supreme Court on Friday, October 21, declined to entertain a plea seeking a change of trial court in the 2017 assault and abduction case against Malayalam actor Dileep. The survivor had moved the apex court alleging that the lower court currently conducting the trial is biased. However, stating that it cannot allow a petition alleging bias, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar observed that such petitions would not allow judges to hear cases without fear and favour.
Dismissing the survivor’s petition, the top court said that a decision on such matters is supposed to be taken by the High Court, which it has already done. It also noted that it has recently issued a direction that the trial in the case be concluded by January 31, 2023.
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. After the High Court said in September that the survivor's apprehensions in connection with not getting a fair trial were not reasonable, the petitioner had moved the apex court challenging the High Court judgment. It was in 2018 that, based on the survivor's plea, the High Court set up this special court with a woman judge for the case trial, which commenced in 2020.
While rejecting her petition, the High Court had said that the survivor might be influenced by the “media trials” in the case. 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 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.