The Kerala High Court, on February 7, is likely to pronounce the verdict in actor Dileep‘s bail plea in the conspiracy to murder case filed against him.
On January 9, the Kerala crime branch had filed an FIR against Dileep and four others, for allegedly conspiring to kill police officials who investigated them, in the female actor abduction and assault case, in which Dileep is the eighth accused. The FIR was filed based on allegations raised by filmmaker Balachandra Kumar. Following this, the accused moved to the Kerala High court, seeking pre-arrest bail in the new case filed against them.
During Friday’s hearing, the Director-General of Prosecution TA Shaji, while opposing Dileep’s bail plea, stated that custodial interrogation of the accused is essential. He said that if the accused are not taken into custody for probing, they might tamper with the evidence and influence witnesses.
He argued that this case holds significance as it has an eyewitness (filmmaker Balachandrakumar) who has seen the hatching of the alleged conspiracy. He also alleged that the accused denied cooperation during the police investigation.
“We are crippled from making an effective investigation. Had there been a custodial interrogation we would not be in this catch 22 situation,” he said.
The prosecution also brought up new audio clips in which Dileep is heard allegedly conspiring to kill the probing police officials. According to Shaji, in one audio clip, Dileep is heard saying that all the probing cops should be ‘killed in a group’. He noted that in another audio clip, the actor can be saying that he wants to ‘burn these cops’.
He added that some of the witnesses have identified the voice of the accused in the submitted audio clips. Another allegation raised during Friday’s hearing was that the accused delayed providing the passwords for their phones which were submitted to the court recently.
The accused’s counsel Senior Advocate Raman Pillai B however stated that the accused had provided the password for their phones. Opposing custodial interrogation, he said that if the accused were taken into custody, they might be probed about the sexual assault case. To this, Judge said that his notes reflect the same worry. The counsel also indicated that there are discrepancies in filmmaker Kumar’s statement.
When the counsel said that he wanted to submit a legal reply to the prosecution’s statement, the judge directed him to do it by Saturday morning. During the previous hearing on Thursday, Pillai stated that most of the allegations were cooked up to frame the actor.
Dileep Seeks Suspension of investigation in the new probe
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The actor, in a separate plea, has moved the HC seeking to suspend further probe into the conspiracy to murder case.
In the petition, he has alleged that moving ahead with this ‘sham investigation’ infringes upon his right to a fair trial and added that it is an abuse of the process of law. He also called the case a “deliberate and calculated attempt” of the prosecution to derail the trial in the 2017 case. He further pointed out that the report was submitted by the Investigating Officer on 29th December 2021, the exact date when the Officer was scheduled to be examined as the last witness for the prosecution at the trial court.
For a full timeline of the female actor abduction and assault case, see here.