Kerala assault case: Actress calls misuse of memory card ‘unfair & shocking’

A day after the victim in the alleged actress assault case of 2017 demanded a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kerala Police into the unauthorised access of a memory card carrying visuals of her ordeal despite the card being in the court’s custody, she expressed her displeasure over the matter, calling it “unfair and shocking”.

Taking to social media, she wrote: “This is unfair and shocking. The report on how the hash value of the memory card containing visuals of my assault has changed is tragically shocking. It’s very scary to know that my privacy is not safe in the court. But I will continue my fight until I get justice.”

Hash values can be thought of as fingerprints for files. The contents of a file are processed through a cryptographic algorithm, and a unique numerical value — the hash value — is produced that identifies the contents of the file.

The victim, a leading south Indian actress, had complained that she was abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of goons in 2017 who also filmed the act to blackmail her.

She had demanded a court-monitored probe by an SIT of the Kerala Police into the alleged unauthorised access of a memory card with visuals of the alleged assault when it was in the custody of a trial court.

The actress had moved the high court in 2022 alleging that the memory card which was seized as evidence was accessed, copied, and transmitted without any authorisation.

To recall, after Sunil – the main accused – was arrested and questioned, prominent actor Dileep was accused of being the main conspirator in the case. Dileep also spent several weeks in jail in this case before being released on bail.

The court will consider the victim’s petition for an SIT probe when it opens after the summer break next month.