The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the District and Sessions Judge, Ernakulam, to provide certified copies of statements of persons examined during the fact-finding inquiry regarding the unauthorised access of a memory card and pen drive containing videos of a sexual assault to the survivor.

The survivor approached the court with two applications. The first application aimed to obtain copies of statements of persons examined in the fact-finding inquiry. The second application sought to set aside or quash the inquiry report dated 8 January 2024, submitted by the Ernakulam Sessions and District Judge.

During the hearing, Justice K Babu clarified that the court never intended to keep the fact-finding inquiry report confidential. The survivor requested the statements of individuals examined during the inquiry to verify the accuracy of the inquiry report. As a result, the Sessions Judge is now required to promptly provide copies of these statements to the survivor.

“Petitioner sought statements of persons examined during the inquiry to ascertain the veracity of the inquiry report. There is no reason to decline the reliefs sought. The Sessions judge is directed to henceforth issue copies of statements of persons who were examined in the inquiry,” the court said.

The counsel for the survivor argued that the court ordered an inquiry and if the inquiry doesn’t comply with the directives of the court, they must bring it to the attention of the court. “Now it has been established that what I have alleged is true. But the inquiry officer doesn’t comply with the direction of the court,” the counsel said.

Last year, the High Court directed the Ernakulam District and Sessions Judge to conduct a fact-finding inquiry on the allegations raised by the survivor in the 2017 actor sexual assault case pertaining to unauthorised access and copy and transfer of the visuals from the memory card and pen drive relating to the incident while it was in the court custody.

The survivor alleged that the fact-finding inquiry was conducted in secrecy denying even her an opportunity to participate in it. The survivor alleged that after the inquiry was over, she was even denied a copy of the report of the fact-finding report and was constrained to approach the court to obtain it.

Last month, the survivor approached the Kerala High Court to get a copy of the probe report after the trial court refused to provide it to her. The High Court agreed to her plea and directed to hand over a copy to her. It was after getting the copy that the survivor submitted the petition before the High Court objecting to the way in which the investigation was conducted by the District Judge.

“A mere reading of the inquiry report indicated that several persons, including the judicial officers, had kept the memory card and the pen drive in their personal custody for months and years without any valid reasons,” the survivor alleged.

A noted south Indian actress was sexually assaulted in a moving car in Kochi on 17 February 2017. While the police zeroed in on the main accused, Pulsar Suni, within a week, actor Dileep was accused as the mastermind of the crime after a few months. The trial which began in early 2020 is still going on.