Actor Dileep’s anticipatory bail plea in the new FIR filed against him, for allegedly conspiring to kill the officers investigating him in the female actor abduction and sexual assault case, has been posted for hearing on Tuesday, January 18. Until then, the Kerala High Court has directed that no action be taken against him.
When hearing bail plea on Friday, Justice Gopinath P stated that he wants to see the statements made by filmmaker Balachandra Kumar, to understand his allegations against Dileep before passing an order on the actor’s petition.
Earlier, on Sunday, the crime branch had filed the new FIR against Dileep and five others, based on audio clips released by Kumar, who claims to be Dileep’s former friend. In the clips that were shared on the Reporters Live news channel, the accused are allegedly heard conspiring to kill the investigation officers in the female actor assault case. Countering this, Dileep moved the HC seeking anticipatory bail.
In the previous hearing of the bail plea, on Tuesday, Dileep’s counsel had termed the new FIR a “mockery,” and added that the audio clips mentioned in it were “a product of fabrication, doctoring and no reliance whatsoever can be placed on [them].”
At Friday’s hearing, senior advocate B Raman Pillai, who was representing Dileep, also raised questions about the raid that was conducted at Dileep’s house on Thursday. “What did they want to raid? Dileep and his family were held under house arrest until the raid was over,” he said.
However, the judge noted that, according to the prosecution, a warrant had been obtained before initiating the search operation.
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On Thursday, the Kerala crime branch raided the accused actor’s residence in Aluva, his production company’s office and his brother Anoop’s house, to search for an unlicensed pistol that the actor kept in his possession, according to Kumar. After almost eight hours of searching, officials seized mobile phones and computer hard disks, but no pistol was found.
Dileep is the eighth accused and alleged mastermind behind the abduction and sexual assault of a female Malayalam actor in February 2017.
For a full timeline of the female actor abduction and assault case, see here.