Kochi: High court has dismissed as withdrawn a petition filed by the survivor in a sexual assault case against three senior police officers in Malappuram, seeking to cancel and re-register the FIR by including the officers’ names as accused instead of merely referring to their official positions, and by invoking Section 34 of the IPC.Justice Jobin Sebastian, while considering the petition on Tuesday, orally observed that a case had already been registered in the alleged incident pursuant to the magistrate’s direction and that further details could emerge during the investigation. At this stage, the prayer to invoke Section 34 of the IPC, which deals with acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention, was premature and the petition would be dismissed with costs, HC observed. Thereafter, the petitioner sought permission to withdraw the petition.The petition alleged that, instead of registering a single FIR by arraying the three officers as accused, namely former Ponnani police SHO Vinod Valiyatoor, DSP V V Benny and former Malappuram SP S Sujith Das, police registered three separate FIRs on the premise that the alleged incidents were unconnected and standalone in nature, while omitting the names of the accused officials. The petitioner further alleged that the FIRs disclosed her identity, contrary to Section 72 of BNS.
