'Absolutely not serious but a mockery': Actor Dileep tells Kerala HC on allegations of threatening police officials probing actress assault case

Kerala High Court on Tuesday posted to January 14, the hearing in an anticipatory bail plea of Malayalam actor Dileep in a case registered by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police for allegedly threatening the investigation officials probing the 2017 actress assault case.

A single bench of Justice Gopinath P directed the Public Prosecutor to get instructions in the matter.

Dileep's counsel argued in Court that although there is no likelihood of arrest in his opinion, the plea for pre-arrest bail had to be moved as it involves high profile individuals.

"Although the likelihood of arrest is not there, this is a high profile case. Absolutely not serious but is a mockery," the counsel argued stating that the entire case against Dileep was fabricated.

He added that director Balachandra Kumar brought up allegations when the trial in the case was nearing completion. "The allegations made by the Investigating Officer was not there at first, they were added at a later stage," he said.

Crime Branch of Kerala Police registered a new case against Malayalam movie actor Dileep and five others on January 9 for allegedly threatening the investigating officials in connection with the actress assault case.

They were booked under IPC sections 116 (abetment of offence punishable with imprisonment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life), 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people). Dileep is named as the first accused in the FIR. Anoop, who is Dileep's brother and Suraj, Dileep's brother-in-law are the second and third accused. Appu, Babu Chengamanad are the other accused. One more accused has not been identified yet.

The case was registered after some audio clips of Dileep and other accused surfaced in which Dileep and others allegedly threatened officials investigating the actress assault case.

At the same time, Balachandra Kumar, a film director has also given a statement against Dileep on this. After this, DySP Baiju Paulose, the investigating officer of the actress assault case filed a complaint with the Crime Branch against Dileep following which the Crime Branch registered a case against Dileep and five others.

The FIR submitted in the Court alleged that the actor had said that the investigating officers Baiju Paulose, Sudarshan, Sandhya, and Sojan are going to suffer. FIR also says that Dileep conspired to chop off the hand of Sudarshan, another investigating officer.

Dileep is also the eighth accused in the actress assault case for alleged conspiracy. The case pertains that an actress who worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017.

( With inputs from ANI )

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