Kochi: Actor Aju Varghese on Tuesday filed a petition before Kerala High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered on a charge of revealing the identity of the actress in the sexual assault case. Aju produced an affidavit signed by the actress saying that she did not have any objection to the court quashing the criminal case slapped on him under section 228 A of the Indian Penal Code (disclosing the identity of victim). The High Court, while refusing to cancel the police case against actor Aju Varghese for mentioning the name of assaulted actress in his Facebook post, stated that simply producing an affidavit from the victim about his/ her having no issue in withdrawing the charge would hold no ground for reliving the accused of the charges.
In his petition, Aju submitted that while extending support to the victim in a social media post, he had mentioned the name of the victim. He had later apologised for disclosing her identity on realising that it was illegal to reveal the identity of the victim. He also said that he had no intention to tarnish the reputation of the actor.
Earlier, a similar compliant was lodged by one Abdulla Sayani at Binamipuram Police station against actor Rima Kallingal for revealing identity of the victim in the actor abduction and sexual assault case through her Facebook post. However the cops did not register any complaint against her after the victim herself said she had no issue with the same. The cops are now forced to act in the complaint in the wake of the High Court observation. “We’ll seek legal opinion and decide what to do with the complaint,” a senior police officer said.
