Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday allowed Pulsar Suni aka Sunil N S, the main accused in the 2017 actor assault case, to be present before the trial court to witness the case proceedings in person.

The ruling was on a plea submitted by Suni against the direction to appear on court through video conferencing.
Suni, in his petition, claimed that video conferencing allows him to remain present at the commencement of the trial only for 5 to 10 minutes.

Justice K Babu observed that physical presence in court ensures fair trial."Fair trial is the main object of criminal procedure, and such fairness should not be hampered or threatened in any manner as it entails the interest of the accused, the victim, and of society.

Fundamentally, a fair trial has a sacrosanct purpose. It has a demonstrable object that the accused should not be prejudiced," the court observed.

'Counterchecking can be difficult'
Suni is one of the 10 accused in the 2017 case. He, along with certain other accused, abducted and assaulted a Malayalam actor sexually in a moving car in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy of actor Dileep, who is a co-accused as the brain behind the incident.

Suni has been in jail for almost 6 years now.

"This is a peculiar kind of case wherein the petitioner/1st accused and 8th accused are having conflicting interests. In such a case, without the presence of the petitioner in the dock, the defence may not be able to countercheck many of the aspects during the trial.

Even during the examination of the witness, documents will have to be shown to the accused, and facts verified with him," the plea noted.
(With inputs from Live Law)