On Wednesday, the High Court of Kerala quashed the criminal proceedings against Malayalam Actor Unni Mukundan filed under a sexual harassment case.
Justice Gopinath P passed the order after noting that a settlement had been met between the actor and the complainant (woman).
The order stated, “No public interest will be served by continuing with the proceedings against the petitioner (Mukundan). Chances of a successful prosecution are also minimal in light of the settlement arrived at between the parties.”
Mukundan was facing trial for allegedly committing the offences under Sections 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 354B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) before a Judicial First-Class Magistrate Court.
The complainant alleged that the actor had forcefully tried to kiss and rape her. She is an Australian woman of Indian origin and the actor tried to do so when she had gone to meet him to brief him about a story for a prospective movie.
While dealing with the matter, the trial court had held that the material presented on record disclosed the existence of all the ingredients constituting the alleged offences.
Therefore, the Court dismissed Mukundan’s application seeking discharge and decided to frame charges against him.
Afterward, the Actor approached the Session Court with a revision petition to challenge the decision of the trial court. However, the Sessions Court dismissed the petition and confirmed the findings of the trial court.
When Mukundan moved the High Court, it granted a stay on the trial when it was informed the Court about a settlement with the complainant through an affidavit.
The affidavit was supposedly signed by the woman was submitted by Mukundan, through advocate Saiby Jose Kidangoor, who is himself embroiled in a bribery scam.
However, on February 9 this year, the High Court lifted the stay after taking note of the woman’s submission that Mukundan had attempted to pressurise her to withdraw the case by delaying tactics.
On May 23, the High Court refused to quash the criminal proceedings against Mukundan and directed that the trial court should proceed with the trial proceedings and dispose of the same within three months.
In the current plea, another affidavit with dated May 27 was produced. The affidavit has the sign of the complainant-woman and it stated that the dispute between both of them was personal in nature and had been settled out of the court.
Today, the counsel for the woman confirmed she did not wish to stretch the proceedings against the Actor.
Considering the same, the High Court quashed the proceedings against the actor.
News Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/kerala-high-court-quashes-sexual-harassment-case-against-actor-unni-mukundan
