Malayalam actor Dileep has moved the Supreme Court requesting that the February 16 deadline to finish trial in a sexual assault case against him not be extended, Mathrubhumi reported on Sunday.
On February 17, 2017, an actor was allegedly kidnapped and sexually abused inside her car for two hours. Dileep is among the 10 accused persons in the case and is the alleged mastermind of the assault. The accused persons had reportedly filmed the assault to blackmail the woman.
The case took another turn earlier this month after filmmaker Balachandrakumar released a purported audio clip in which Dileep could be heard asking some persons to “wait to see how the five investigating officers are going to suffer”.
Another person is reportedly heard saying that if a “truck is hitting Baiju Poulose [the deputy superintendent of police who investigated the sexual assault case], we would have to see another Rs 1.50 crore”.
After this, Kerala Police’s Crime Branch had registered a new first information report against Dileep and others and charged them for allegedly conspiring to kill an investigating officer in the sexual assault case. The Kerala government had also approached the Supreme Court seeking to extend the trial’s deadline by six months.
Dileep has now filed a counter-affidavit to the state government’s plea. He has requested the court to not allow further inquiry into the matter, and has demanded speedy trial in the case, according to the Mathrubhumi.
Dileep accuses Balachandrakumar of extortion
Meanwhile, the actor has submitted to the Kerala High Court that Balachandrakumar, who released the purported audio clip, had tried to extort money from him, the Mathrubhumi reported.
Dileep has made the accusation in a reply to a statement filed by the Kerala Crime Branch.
The actor claimed that Balachandrakumar’s wife is a close acquaintance of the Bishop of Neyyattinkara, who in turn, knows Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, other state ministers and senior police officers.
Dileep has said in his statement that after he got bail in the sexual assault case in October 2017, Balachandrakumar had claimed that it had been possible due to the bishop’s intervention. Dileep has alleged that the filmmaker then demanded money from him claiming that the bishop and few others had to be paid.
Dileep submitted the statement after appearing before the crime branch on Sunday for questioning in the case related to the alleged conspiracy to kill the investigating officer. On Saturday, the Kerala High Court had granted Dileep protection from arrest till January 27, but had asked him to appear before the crime branch for three days.
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