P.GOPALAKRISHNAN @ DILEEP Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The 8th accused, aggrieved by the rejection of his application Crl.M.P.No.49/2018 in C.P.No.16/2017 of the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Angamaly, for a direction to furnish a cloned copy of the contents and the transcript of a memory card produced by the prosecution, has approached this Court.

(2.) The crux of the prosecution case, as is available from the records, is as follows: The 8th accused is well known and popular cine artist. The defacto complainant (victim) is also a well known actress in Malayalam film industry. It is alleged that the petitioner herein maintained enmity towards the defacto complainant, believing her to be responsible for the break down of his matrimonial relationship. To retaliate, he allegedly conspired with the first accused to abduct the victim,to sexually abuse her, to record the acts of sexual abuse and to black mail her using the video graphed materials. In prosecution of the above conspiracy, the first accused allegedly solicited the assistance of accused Nos. 2 to 6 and on 17/2/2017, while the victim was proceeding in a car along the National Highway, she was intercepted by accused Nos. 1 to 6. They abducted her to Ernakulam and on the way she was sexually abused inside the vehicle and the acts of sexual violence involving the first accused and the victim were video graphed by the first accused on his mobile phone. The victim was abandoned thereafter. The data in the mobile phone was allegedly transferred by the first accused to a memory card. In the meanwhile, the incident was reported by the victim to the Nedumbassery police, who registered Crime No.297/2017 and investigation commenced. On getting information about the registration of the crime, the first accused entrusted the memory card to CW44, who later produced it before the Judicial Magistrate.

(3.) After investigation, final report was laid against accused Nos. 1 to 7 on 17/4/2017 for offences punishable under sections 120(b), 201, 212, 342, 366, 375(D), 506(1) r/w 34 Penal Code and sections 66 B and 67A of the IT Act.