Kerala actor rape case: Death of filmmaker Balachandrakumar who is a key witness will leave no legal impact on trial-OxBig News Network

The passing away of filmmaker P. Balachandrakumar, an additional prosecution witness in the Kerala actor rape case, would leave no legal impact on the high-profile case, as his testimony was recorded earlier in the case, which has reached the final stages of trial.

The prosecution and the defence lawyers had extensively examined and cross-examined him and the evidence has been closed. Hence, the death of the witness will have no impact on the evidence collected in the case, according to legal sources.

The friend-turned-foe of actor Dileep, who had been charged with conspiracy in the case, was examined for close to 50 days in the case and most of his examination was held through video-conferencing as he reported his inability to travel to District and Sessions Court, Ernakulam, where the trial is being held, on health grounds.

He was one of the nearly 250 witnesses examined in the case.

The prosecution had sought further investigation in the case based on the alleged revelations of Balachandrakumar that he had witnessed Mr. Dileep and some of his relatives watching the visuals of the alleged rape. Balachandrakumar also wrote a letter to the Kerala Chief Minister in this regard. The prosecution approached the court seeking further investigation in the case at a time when the examination of Baiju Poulose, the investigating officer, was scheduled by the court.

The prosecution had used the statements of Balachandrakumar to reinforce its arguments that N. S. Sunil, the first accused, and actor Dileep, the eighth accused, had met each other before the alleged commission of rape on a woman actor in a moving car in 2017.

The defence case was that the two had never met and hence the actor could not be booked for hatching a conspiracy with the first accused as alleged by the prosecution.

The police had added the charge of destruction of evidence against Mr. Dileep and his brother in the case after they could not recover the reported copies of the alleged rape from the accused.