Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu, who is charged in a rape case, has failed to return to India from Dubai as scheduled on Monday. He has reportedly postponed his travel to Wednesday.
Babu was charged in the rape case back in April, after a female actor filed a complaint alleging that he had physically abused and sexually exploited her between March 13 and April 14. However, on April 24, Babu fled to Dubai from Bengaluru.
Soon after news broke about the sexual assault allegation, the accused also went live on Facebook and spoke about the matter. Violating the law, Babu revealed the survivor’s identity by openly naming her and a second FIR was filed against him for this as well.
Later, Babu moved the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case. When the plea came up for hearing, the court had ordered the actor to submit his return air ticket to the court. With this being the case, Babu’s lawyers had produced his return ticket to India from Dubai on a morning flight on Monday.
However, since the police remain firm on arresting him upon arrival and the court has not yet granted him anticipatory bail, the accused appears to have postponed his travel in order to evade arrest.
The High Court has, meanwhile, pushed the hearing of his bail plea to Tuesday. According to The Hindu, Vijay Babu is thus planning to return on Wednesday after a verdict is given in his plea.
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In the meantime, on May 5, a Blue Corner notice was issued by the Kerala police to extradite the accused from Dubai. This is an inquiry notice issued to track, identify or obtain information about an absconding accused, and it is issued to the country where the criminal is currently suspected to be hiding. The police had also contacted Interpol to extradite him and official procedures for the same were launched through the Crime Branch, which is the nodal agency of Interpol in the state.
A few weeks later, the actor-producer’s passport was impounded on May 20 as a result of his failure to surrender before the law.