[Actress Assault Case] Final report to be filed by July 22, no extra time to probe into Sreelekha IPS: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the State police to submit by July 22, the final report in the further investigation into the 2017 actress assault case, in which Malayalam cine actor Dileep is a prime accused. [State of Kerala v P Gopalakrishnan alias Dileep & Anr.].Justice Kauser Edappagath reiterated the Court's previous observation that time limit for probe cannot be extended over and over again, especially since the timeline to wrap up the investigation as well as the trial had already been extended several times by the High Court and the Supreme Court. However, since the Director General of Prosecution, Senior Advocate TA Shaji submitted that the final report is ready but for some photocopying and binding work, the Court decided to grant it a few more days to finish the task and submit the final report."The time fixed by this court to complete the further investigation is already over. The time limit fixed by the Supreme Court to complete the trial is also over. Another Bench of this court while disposing of the O.P. (Crl.) No.257/2022 has specifically observed that timelines specified must be adhered to without fail so that, further investigation and the trial of the case are not delayed. For all these reasons, the extension sought for cannot be allowed. The learned DGP has submitted that the final report is ready. However, the learned DGP submits that the further report consists of voluminous of pages, its photocopies have to be taken and it has to be assembled and bound together so as to produce before the Court. DGP seeks a breathing time for the same. Considering the submission of the learned DGP, the investigating agency is granted time till 22/7/2022 to submit the final report," the Court said in its order.The Court, however, refused to grant time to investigate the statements made by retired IPS officer Sreelekha who had claimed that Dileep was innocent..In 2017, a popular Malayalam cine actress was abducted, raped and videotaped in a moving vehicle by several persons allegedly at the behest of Dileep in an attempt to take revenge on the actress who is believed to have played a role in Dileep's divorce from his now ex-wife.In December 2021, cine director Balachandra Kumar levelled some serious allegations against Dileep and his associates, who are still undergoing trial before an Additional Special Sessions Court. Kumar claimed that there was a conspiracy to kill the police officers who were involved in the investigation of the actress assault case.Based on this, a new FIR was registered against Dileep and 5 others.The High Court allowed the crime branch to conduct further investigation but directed it to finish the same by April 15. The time limit was extended twice, to May 31 and then July 15. Meanwhile, some discrepancies were noticed in the hash value of the memory card containing the video recording of the assault which was in the custody of the trial court. The High Court recently allowed the prosecution's plea to examine the memory card..The prosecution then approached the High Court with the instant application seeking three more weeks time to submit the final report on two grounds: i) To collect the cloned copy/mirror image of the forensic image of the memory card from the Forensic Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram.(ii) To interrogate former Director General of Police, R Sreelekha IPS regarding her recent public allegations against the findings of the investigating agency as well her claims that Dileep is innocentThe Court first allowed the crime branch three days time to collect the clones copy of the memory card and submit it before the trial court in a sealed cover.However, it declined to extend the time for investigating the statements made by Sreelekha as it opined that it has nothing to do with the further investigation initiated as per the revelations of Balachandra Kumar. .[Read Order]