The complainant who has accused Malayalam actor Dileep of sexual assault has urged the Kerala High Court to make her a party in a plea against further investigation into the matter, The News Minute reported on Tuesday.
On February 3, Dileep had approached the court challenging further investigation by the state’sCrime Branch in the February 2017 sexual assault case against him. The complainant has urged the court to hear her side before passing any order on the plea. The High Court has adjourned the matter to February 21, PTI reported.
In his plea, Dileep had contended that further investigation in the sexual assault case should not be permitted as a final report on the matter had been filed in November 2017 and charges were framed in January 2020.
The actor had claimed that the police were carrying out “a series of vindictive acts” in the garb of inquiry and that allowing the investigation to continue would infringe on his right to a fair trial.
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 a fresh turn in January 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 [of the sexual assault case] are going to suffer”.
After the purported clip was released, the Kerala Police’s Crime Branch registered another first information report against Dileep and others for allegedly conspiring to kill an investigating officer. On February 7, the actor was granted anticipatory bail in the case.
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