The Kerala high court on Thursday vacated the stay on the trial proceedings initiated against Malayalam film industry actor Unni Mukundan in connection with a sexual assault case after the woman complainant informed the court that she did not sign any document to settle the case out of court.
Counsel for Mukundan in the case was controversial lawyer Saiby Jose Kidangoor who is facing bribery allegations. Kidangoor has been accused of collecting huge amounts of money from clients under the pretext of bribing judges to get favourable orders.
The counsel for the complainant informed the court that the interim stay was granted on a false pretext “that the issue was settled out of court between both the parties”. The complainant’s counsel also said the petitioner never signed any document in this regard and she was “not aware of any settlement either”.
In 2017, the woman had filed a police complaint accusing the actor of sexual assault when she had gone to discuss a story with the actor at his flat in Kochi. In May 2021, the court had granted a stay after the counsel for the accused, Kidangoor, submitted an affidavit saying the issue was sorted out of the court by two.
Single bench of justice K Babu observed that if allegations raised by the complainant are true, Mukundan and his counsel will be answerable for submitting false documents “which is a criminal offence”.
“If proved right, it is a serious offence. It is a fraud on the court and attempt to mislead it,” the court observed, after vacating the stay. The court directed the petitioner to file a reply to the allegations made by the complainant and the case was posted for hearing next week.
Last week, the HC had refused to stay the case against Kidangoor. On Wednesday, he had also resigned from the president post of the HC advocates association.
After some “cash for verdict allegations” surfaced, a case was registered against the lawyer under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 7(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case was based on the complaint filed by the registrar of the high court to the state police chief Anil Kant. Later, the Kochi police commissioner had constituted a special investigation team to probe the case. Last month the high court had recalled its order granting pre-arrest bail to two accused in a case registered under the prevention of SC/ST atrocities act in which Kidangoor represented the accused.