2017 Actress Assault Case: Kerala HC grants Crime Branch time to conclude investigation

A Single Bench of Justice Kauser Edappagath allowed this on the plea of the Crime Branch probing the case.

While allowing more time, the Court observed, "the Pendrive submitted by the prosecution contained two folders containing three voice clips each, which were apparently collected by the investigating officers during the course of further investigation and hence required careful analysis."

In the plea, the prosecution had urged the court some time by saying, "the probe team had to make every piece of evidence admissible, failing which the accused will challenge it as inadmissible before the trial court."

Earlier on Wednesday, the HC had reserved its order on Crime Branch's a plea seeking more time to conclude the investigation in the said case and declined the survivor actress' request seeking the judge might avoid hearing the matter, as she noted that the judge had earlier recused from hearing her plea seeking proper investigation and hearing in the case.

On May 24, the Kerala Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had said that the plea filed by the survivor actress in the 2017 actress assault case was mysterious and allegations raised by her against the state government were baseless, as the survivor actress, on May 23, had approached the Kerala HC seeking its intervention in the case to ensure justice and had alleged that a move is being made to subvert the case.

The case pertains that an actress, who worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films, was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of 17 February 2017. (ANI)