Aju Varghese. ManoramaKochi: The Kerala High Court Tuesday refused to stay the legal proceedings and quash the FIR registered against Malayalam actor Aju Varghese for revealing the identity of the actress who was assaulted in Kochi on February 17.
The court said it cannot interfere in police investigation. "Merely by reaching a settlement with the victim actress, the case against the accused does not cease to exist," the court explained.
Aju had approached the court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him and stated that the victim actress had no objection to the withdrawal of the case and submitted her affidavit in this regard.
"Aju is my friend. He did not have any malicious interest in revealing my name," the actress said in the affidavit. The case was registered under IPC Section 228(A), which prevents revealing identity of the victim in certain cases.
The court has sent a notice to the complainant, a Kalamassery native, seeking his opinion.
Aju mentioned the name of the actress in a Facebook post while defending Malayalam actor Dileep. The police on July 10 arrested Dileep on charges of conspiracy. The police had arrested Pulsar Suni, who had worked as a driver of many film personalities, six days after the incident. A letter which Pulsar Suni purportedly wrote to actor Dileep had caused a furore. Dileep had undergone a marathon 13-hour grilling at the Aluva police club days ahead of his arrest. The actor had approached the police saying that the prime accused tried to blackmail him from jail. Things went awry for Dileep after the police found discrepancies in his statements.
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