Actress abduction case: Kerala HC nixes survivor's plea for change of court

The survivor of the 2017 actress abduction incident suffered a rude jolt on Thursday after a single bench of the Kerala High Court turned down her request for a change of trial court judge hearing the case.

A single bench judge directed that the trial would continue at the Principal Sessions Court, Ernakulam by judge Honey M.Varghese.

This is the second time that her request has been turned down.

In her first appeal, she had made a fervent request that she would not mind even if the new judge is a male, as it was on her request that a lady judge was first engaged.

Actor Dileep, one of the accused in the case, spent 85 days in jail and is currently out on bail.

In the past few months, the case has taken numerous twists and in December last year, a fresh case was registered against Dileep and his close associates based on a disclosure made by his former friend and director Balachandrakumar that he had conspired to do away with the police officials who probed the abduction case.

After several rounds of hearing, he got anticipatory bail from the Kerala High Court in March in the second case.