The Kerala High Court, on Tuesday, dismissed a plea filed by actor Dileep seeking to quash an FIR registered against him for allegedly conspiring to murder police officials investigating the 2017 actor abduction and sexual assault case. Dileep is the alleged chief conspirator in the 2017 case.
Actor Dileep was booked along with five others for allegedly conspiring to kill the police officers who investigated his involvement in the 2017 Female actor abduction and assault case. The FIR was filed based on allegations raised by filmmaker Balachandra Kumar. Dileep had moved the court in February 2022 to either quash the case registered against him or transfer it to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The plea was heard by Justice Ziyad Rahman AA over three days at the end of March. On the third day, after hearing both sides, the judge stated that he would pass the order within one week. He also confirmed with the Director-General of Prosecution (DGP) TA Shaji that the investigation would not be completed before the order is passed.
While refusing to quash the case on Tuesday, the court also refused to transfer the case to the CBI. “…in the absence of any material indicating influence being thrust upon him at the instance of such superior officers, an order for transferring the investigation to another agency cannot be made,” the court said, while dismissing the plea.
In a further investigation of the main case, cybersecurity expert Sai Sankar, who is also the seventh accused in the conspiracy case, during his interrogation on Monday has retrieved crucial files which were earlier deleted from Dileep’s phone. Sankar recovered 10 files including chats from the actor’s phone as per investigators’ instructions. Earlier, the forensic lab, despite multiple attempts, had failed to recover the files, which the investigators claim is a crucial piece of evidence.
Recommended
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch summoned the eighth accused and actor Dileep’s brother P Anoop and brother-in-law T N Suraj on Tuesday in relation to the case. Anoop arrived at the Aluva Police Club around 11 am on Tuesday for questioning. The duo were initially asked to appear before the Crime Branch last week which they skipped.
Update: On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court also granted the Crime Branch time till May 30 to complete the investigation in the main sexual assault case. On March 8, the court had given time to the agency till April 15 to complete the probe, following which the agency had sought an extension of three more months.