The Kerala High Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Dileep and others in a first information report related to alleged conspiracy to kill investigating officers of a 2017 sexual assault case, reported Live Law.
“Your apprehensions regarding non-cooperation with the investigation can be addressed by conditions,” Justice Gopinath told the prosecution while pronouncing the verdict. The prosecution can apply for arrest if the conditions are violated.
However, it is not clear what these conditions are as a detailed order is not out yet.
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.
On January 9, the Kerala Police’s Crime Branch had registered a new first information report against Dileep based on a purported audio clip in which he is 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 probed the sexual assault case], we would have to see another Rs 1.50 crore”.
Filmmaker Balachandrakumar, who said that he was a friend of Dileep, had released the audio clip. It was subsequently aired by Malayalam news channel Reporter TV, which led to the first information report.
The police have booked Dileep and five other persons in the case. They have invoked sections pertaining to intimidation and criminal conspiracy. The others named as accused persons in the case are the actor’s brother Anoop, Dileep’s brother-in-law Sooraj, a man that Balachandrakumar referred to as “VIP” and two others.
During the hearings in the case, Director-General of Prosecution TA Shaji had opposed anticipatory bail, saying there was already some proof of the witnesses being influenced in the 2017 sexual assault case. He had pressed for the judicial or police custody of the accused persons to protect the witnesses.
“They have money and muscle power and they used it to try and sabotage the other case [actress assault case],” Shaji had argued. “They have the capability to sabotage the trial and the investigation.”
On the other hand, Dileep’s lawyers had argued that the entire police force was against the actor, just because they could not establish that he was guilty in the sexual assault case.
“The conspiracy is not between the accused,” the lawyers representing the actor had said. “The conspiracy is between the ADGP [additional director general of police] and other officers with a hidden agenda to register an FIR and throw me [Dileep] behind bars.”
Dileep also contended that case against him and others was “fabricated”, reported PTI. He said that the purported audio clip did not reveal any statement to commit any criminal conspiracy, according to The Hindu.
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