Alleging political interference in the sexual assault case of 2017 involving actor Dileep, the survivor on Monday approached the Kerala High Court seeking its intervention in the matter, alleging that there was a move to derail the probe.
The survivor, in her plea, also raised serious allegations against the trial court saying the presiding officer has some "vested interest to save the culprits".
The plea came a day after the Crime Branch has reportedly decided to wind up the investigation into a related case of an alleged tampering of digital evidence.
"It is painfully submitted that the government of Kerala which gave support to the cause of the petitioner/victim at the initial stage and allowed a fair investigation in the case by police officers of high integrity and took credit of the investigation politically has backtracked from its constitutional legal commitment of conducting a free, fair and complete investigation in the case," she said.
The petition also alleges that Dileep has unlawfully influenced some of the politicians of the ruling front in the state and attempted to interfere with the further investigation in the case and prematurely close the same.
"...it is reliably learned that the prosecution as well as the investigation agency are now threatened by the political higher-ups to end up the investigation half the way and file the additional final report in a half-cooked manner. This clearly establishes the illegal nexus between the accused and the ruling front," the plea said.
Raising allegations against the trial court, the petition said it was clear from the records that the "illegal access/tampering was done" while one of the digital evidence was in judicial custody.
The petition said even though the Forensic Science Laboratory authorities had submitted a report to the court, the judge kept the same without making any entries in the court records.
"The act of the presiding officer is highly suspicious...the conduct of the presiding officer in obstructing investigation in this matter clearly shows that she (the judge) wants to illegally help the culprits and she is privy to all these heinous acts," the plea said.
The survivor also alleged that Dileep, a film star and a multimillionaire, was capable of "playing any heinous tricks to influence anybody" and do "any blackmailing techniques to keep others under his captivity".
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan attacked the Left government over the petition of the survivor seeking the high court's investigation and sought a probe into the allegation that the government was interfering to settle the case.
"The allegation is that Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders have become middlemen and the probe agency was going to the court without completing the investigation in order to settle the case. The situation which led the survivor to approach the court raising allegations against the government must be probed," Satheesan told the media in Kochi.
The Congress leader asked the state government to make clear the circumstances that led to concluding the probe midway.
The actress-victim who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress.
There are 10 accused in the case and police arrested seven persons. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail.
