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Malayalam movie producer and actor Vijay Babu, who has been accused of raping a woman actor, failed to return to India and appear before the Kerala High Court on Monday, 30 May.
Earlier, his counsel had produced air tickets showing his return on Monday before the court while seeking anticipatory bail. He is now expected to return on Wednesday,1 June.
While he moved the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail, the court said that the bail would be granted only after he produces travel tickets indicating his return to India, after which his lawyers submitted his plane tickets which showed his date of return as 30 May.
Vijay’s lawyers submitted the ticket on 24 May, following which the court agreed to hear his bail plea. In his representation to the court, the actor alleged that the survivor filed the complaint to blackmail him. In his interlocutory application, he claimed that their relationship was consensual and that the problem between them started after he decided to cast another actor in his upcoming film.
Days later, in a detailed Facebook post, the survivor anonymously detailed the physical and mental torture and sexual assault that she allegedly faced at the hands of Vijay Babu. She alleged that he sexually abused her for weeks, and that he even blackmailed her by threatening to release private videos of her.
Vijay Babu was accused of sexually assaulting a woman actor, who filed a police complaint on 22 April. She had also put out the details of the physical assault and sexual exploitation she had allegedly faced from the producer-actor on Facebook.
However, after he absconded he appeared on a live-streamed Facebook video on April 26 where he disclosed the identity of the survivor. "I respect the law of the land but here I am the victim and my name has come out. So why shouldn't the other party's name come out too," he said.
In 2017, actor Sandra Thomas had filed an assault complaint against Vijay Babu, which was later withdrawn.
(Published in arrangement with The News Minute.)
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