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Kerala actor assault case: Public prosecutor A Sureshan quits
Last month the prosecution and survivor had moved the high court alleging “a discriminatory approach” by the special judge Honey M Varghese who is hearing the case.
The special public prosecutor in the actor abduction and assault case, A Sureshan, on Monday resigned from his post three days after the High Court rejected the pleas of the survivor and prosecution to change the judge of the trial court.
He said he sent his resignation letter to the state home secretary. The court later deferred the case to November 26. Now the government will have to appoint a new prosecutor and it is likely to delay the ongoing trial.
Sureshan was appointed the special public prosecutor on the request of the survivor and her family. In the letter he said since he questioned the attitude of the judge it is not proper for him to continue. He was the prosecutor in the Soumya murder case in 2011 in which accused Govindachamy was sentenced to death. But later, the apex court had commuted his sentence to life-term. Soumya was thrown out of a moving train and raped on the tracks and she later succumbed to her injuries.
Last month the prosecution and survivor had moved the high court alleging “a discriminatory approach” by the special judge Honey M Varghese who is hearing the case. In the sensational case, many witnesses had turned hostile during the trial and both alleged that the court failed to take any action.
The prosecution had moved the court earlier to cancel the bail of Malayalam actor Dileep, the eighth accused in the case, saying some of the witnesses were influenced by him but the trail court had turned it down. Later, both moved the high court with a plea to change the judge. But after a week-long argument the HC had turned down their plea and directed the court to resume the trail.
The attack on the woman actor took place in 2017. When the 31-year-old actor was returning after a shooting assignment she was allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving car by a criminal gang. There were 10 accused in the case. They took video clippings of the assault and let her go after a three-hour ordeal and threatened to release the video clippings if she approached the police.
During the attack the main accused Pulsar Suni, an alleged history sheeter, had reportedly told the victim that he was given a quotation (a contract crime) and he was forced to do this. However, the actor complained the next day and police arrested all accused who were directly involved in the crime. Since there was strong speculation that they carried out the assault at the behest of someone, after six months the Special Investigation Team had arrested Dileep and he spent three months in jail. The case witnessed many twists and turns in three years.
