Kochi, March 31 Springing a surprise, Actor Dileep on Thursday said he wants the Kerala High Court to either quash the FIR against him or hand over the 'conspiracy' case to the CBI. The new case was lodged following a disclosure by his former friend and director Balachandrakumar that he had conspired to do away with the police officials who probed the 2017 actress abduction case.
The court after hearing all the parties asked, "since the probe is into a conspiracy and it is the police officials who were to be done away, won't it be better if an external agency like the CBI probes it."
The Kerala government strongly opposed this and pointed out that so far none has objected to the way the probe in this case was going forward and there was no need for it to be handed over to the CBI.
Finally the court reserved its verdict and wound up the hearing in this case.
Incidentally, it was only on Wednesday night that the probe team ended the questioning of Dileep for over 15 hours spread over two days in the very same case.
The probe team won a moral victory when the High Court first refused to suspend the further probe and later a stay sought by the actor into the probe was also nixed.
The actor suffered a rude jolt late last year when his former friend and director Balachandrakumar came out against him, claiming Dileep said that he would eliminate police officials who had investigated the 2017 actress abduction case in which he is presently out on bail.
The actor's counsel, however, have been arguing that the fresh disclosure were cooked up by the prosecution to book the actor and to fabricate evidence against him after the probe agency failed to find any concrete evidence against Dileep in the abduction case.
A frontline south Indian heroine had complained that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of goons in 2017 and certain scenes were filmed to blackmail her. After main accused Sunil was arrested and questioned, Dileep was accused of being the main conspirator in the case and arrested.
According to the prosecution, Dileep, who is presently out on bail after spending two months in jail, had also seen the visuals of the attack on the actress.
Meanwhile the probe team work is going on in full gear as the High Court has given a deadline to finish the probe latest by April 15.
In a related development, IG of Police A.V. George who was SP when he led the arrest of Dileep in 2017, retired form service on Thursday.
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