Soni Satti
The Supreme Court granted six months’ time to complete the trial in the actress abduction case.
The special court judge Honey M Varghese who filed the plea approached the Supreme Court the other day seeking more time to complete the trial in the case of the Malayalam actor Dileep, who is named as an accused of alleged abduction and molestation of a south Indian actress.
On November 29, 2019, a division bench of the Supreme Court including AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheswari ordered the trial court to complete the trial within 6 months. However, the trial got interrupted due to the lockdown over the COVID-19 outbreak.
Following this, the apex court granted 6 more months to complete the trial as requested by the special court judge in August 2020.
As per the Supreme Court order in August, the trial in the actress attack case was supposed to be completed by February first week.
The trial was not completed on time as the prosecution’s transfer petitions were not produced and the prosecutor failed to appear before the court. This is the second time the apex court is extending the deadline for completing the trial of the case .
The court made it clear that this is the last extension of the deadline and will not be extended further.