The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Centre and the state government to reply on Malayalam actor Dileep’s plea seeking to quash a first information report accusing him and others of allegedly conspiring to kill police officers investigating a 2017 sexual assault case against him, reported PTI.
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”.
In a plea filed on February 14, Dileep had asked the Kerala High Court to quash the first information report alleging him of conspiring to kill the police officers. He had submitted that if the FIR cannot be quashed, then investigation of the case should be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
This was after the High Court on February 7, granted anticipatory bail to the actor in the conspiracy case.
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