Kerala High Court quashes FIR against actress Lakshmi Menon in assault and abduction case

The Kerala High Court on Friday quashed criminal proceedings initiated against actress Lakshmi R Menon and other co-accused in connection with the alleged assault and abduction of an IT professional in August [Midhun Mohan v State of Kerala and connected matters].Justice CS Dias allowed the plea filed by Menon and others to quash the case after noting that the accused and the complainant had settled the dispute. To this end, they executed an affidavit indicating that the dispute had been resolved amicably and arose from a misunderstanding."In the result, the Criminal Miscellaneous Case is allowed. Annexure A1 FIR and all further proceedings in the crime registered before the Ernakulam Town North Police Station are hereby quashed," the Court's order said. .The case concerned an incident from August 24 which took place near a pub named 'Velocity' in Kochi, where a quarrel had broken out between the complainant, an IT professional, and the actress, along with her friends.The complainant alleged that his car was intercepted by Menon and her friend, that he was dragged out of his vehicle, and assaulted in the vehicle of the accused. Following the incident, an FIR was registered against Menon and the others at the Ernakulam Town North Police Station under Sections 140 (2) (kidnapping), 126 (wrongful restraint), 296 (obscene acts), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS).The Court had earlier granted the actress and two other accused anticipatory bail based on an affidavit in which the complainant said that the dispute was amicably settled and that he did not wish to proceed with the case any further..The actress and the others accused were represented by advocates Biju Balakrishnan, VS Rakhee, KJ Gisha, Akshaya S Nair and Jayakumar C.Advocate Vivek Venugopal represented the de-facto complainant..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.