The Kerala High Court on Monday, 7 February, granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Dileep in the case over the alleged criminal conspiracy to kill police officers investigating the 2017 actor sexual assault and abduction case.
The police had claimed in the court that Dileep was not cooperating with the investigation and could influence the witnesses. Dileep and the other accused, including his brother and brother-in-law, had contended that they answered all the questions put to them by the police during the 33-hour-long interrogation.
Justice Gopinath P, hearing the case said that if the accused persons don't cooperate with the conditions imposed, then a plea can be moved for arresting them.
On 9 January, the Crime Branch had registered a case on a complaint filed by Baiju Paulose, DySP and investigating official in the assault case, based on a purported audio clip of Dileep, accusing the actor of allegedly planning a conspiracy to murder a few of the officials. The pre-arrest bail plea had been filed after the Kerala Police Crime Branch filed the case.
The court's verdict on the anticipatory bail plea came after several rounds of arguments between the petitioners and the prosecution. The actor's counsel argued that the case was a "fabricated one" as the prosecution's charges against him in the abduction case were weak and the investigators were trying to elicit fresh evidence against him from the conspiracy case.
Earlier, the police had accused Dileep of not handing over the mobile phones that were crucial for the investigation. On 29 January, the high court had directed Dileep and his two close relatives to produce six mobile phones on 31 January. The accused handed over the mobile phones to the court, which did not allow the Crime Branch to inspect the gadgets, but sent them to the forensic laboratory for examination.
Meanwhile, the court last week granted one more month for the prosecution to examine a few more witnesses in the actor abduction and sexual assault case.
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