- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE high court of the southern Indian state of Kerala on Thursday (27) granted Malayalam actor Dileep and four others protection from arrest till February 2 in a case related to the alleged conspiracy to kill the police officers who had investigated the case of abduction and sexual assault of a woman actor in which the former is an accused.
The court also posted the anticipatory bail pleas for the same date after the prosecution wanted more time to analyse “digital evidences” the crime branch has found till now, The Indian Express reported.
The crime branch, which is looking into the case in connection to the conspiracy, had interrogated Dileep and others for 33 hours over three days since last Sunday (23).
The court had allowed the crime branch to question the accused.
It had also prevented their arrest till Thursday and had asked the prosecution to furnish a report in a sealed cover. The prosecution accordingly submitted the report on the same day.
The crime branch had also served a notice to Dileep to submit a few gadgets, including a few mobile phones, which the investigating team could not find from him.
The 54-year-old actor had informed the investigators that he had handed over such gadgets for forensic examination through his advocate “so that the data in the gadgets are not tampered with”.
Earlier in January, the crime branch had registered a case against Dileep and five others, including his brother Anoop and brother-in-law Sooraj, alleging that they wanted to kill the officers who had investigated the 2017 case of abduction and sexual assault of an actor.
A first information report (FIR) in the alleged conspiracy case was registered based on the information that was provided by Dileep’s estranged friend and film director Balachandrakumar, who claimed Dileep hatched the conspiracy on November 15, 2017.
Dileep countered saying the conspiracy case was fabricated.
The report in the alleged conspiracy case states quoting Balachandrakumar: “…Pointing his fingers at the visuals of A V George (then Kochi city police commissioner), Dileep said you five officials are going to suffer…Sojan, Sudarasan, Sandhya, Baiju Poulose, then you. The hand of Sudarasan, who manhandled me, should be chopped off.”
According to the FIR, the conspiracy to target the cops took place at Dileep’s house in Aluva in Ernakulam district of Kerala a month after he was released on bail in the case.
Balachandrakumar, the FIR said, had directly witnessed the conspiracy being hatched.
