Kerala High Court judge Justice Jobin Sebastian on Monday recused himself from hearing a petition filed by the survivor of the 2017 actress assault case. The petition seeks a fresh, thorough investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged unauthorised access to the memory card containing visuals of the assault.

When the matter came up for admission earlier in the day, Justice Sebastian sought clarification from the survivor's counsel on whether any complaints had been pursued on the administrative side regarding the alleged access to the memory card.

The judge orally asked whether any departmental inquiry, disciplinary action or criminal proceedings had been initiated against those accused of unlawfully accessing the memory card.

He also referred to an earlier writ petition filed by the survivor in 2022 seeking similar reliefs and questioned the outcome of those proceedings. The court sought details on the order passed in the earlier case, whether the fact-finding inquiry report had been placed before the judge who ordered the inquiry, and whether the report had been considered for initiating administrative action.

Observing that the matter required detailed consideration, the judge initially passed over the case. However, he later recused himself after noting that he had been holding charge as Registrar (District Judiciary) when the survivor's previous counsel had filed a complaint on the administrative side.

The survivor had earlier approached the High Court in 2022. That petition was disposed of in December 2023, with the court directing the Ernakulam District and Sessions Judge to conduct a fact-finding inquiry into the allegations. In the present plea, the survivor has challenged the findings of that inquiry.

The petition seeks the constitution of an SIT, including at least one expert in cyber or digital forensics, to conduct a time-bound, effective, fair and comprehensive investigation into the alleged unauthorised access to the memory card.

The memory card is a crucial piece of evidence in the 2017 actress assault case, which pertains to the abduction and sexual assault of an actress inside a moving vehicle on the outskirts of Kochi on February 17, 2017. The assault was allegedly recorded on video, and the footage was later copied onto a memory card that was produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Aluva by one of the accused, who was subsequently discharged from the case.

Last year, the trial court acquitted actor Dileep, one of the accused in the case, while convicting six others.

(With LiveLaw inputs)