Kochi: The High Court will on Friday consider the petition submitted by the survivor-actor in the sexual assault case seeking its interference, alleging a move to subvert the probe.
While hearing the case earlier, the court severely criticised the petitioner. It asked her on what basis she was making the allegations against the trial court judge.
The actress had levelled charges that the trial court was biased against her and refused to grant permission to examine the memory card containing visuals of the attack, despite a forensic report confirming the modification of the card's hash value thrice.
A bench led by Justice Ziyad Rahman A A will hear the arguments. The same bench had set aside the pronouncement of verdict in another petition filed by the survivor, seeking to transfer the case from the Ernakulam Principal Sessions court.
Meanwhile, a copy of the supplementary charge sheet submitted by the Crime Branch in the case regarding the abduction and sexual assault of the actor by a quotation gang was handed over to the accused. The District Principal Sessions court will consider the case again on Friday.
The court had on Thursday stressed the Supreme Court directive to complete the trial proceedings in the case before January 31, 2023. There was also a direction to submit a progress report every four weeks, starting from September 5.
The prosecution pointed out that the petition filed against the District Principal Sessions court hearing the case, earlier handled by a special CBI court holding the stature of the Additional Sessions court, was still under the consideration of the High Court.
The prosecution said the arguments could be continued after the High Court pronounced a verdict in the case. However, the trial court made it clear that the case can't be postponed, citing the Supreme Court's direction to conduct the trial proceedings on a daily basis.
