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Kerala court rejects plea to cancel actor Dileep’s bail in sexual assault case
As the trial in the 2017 actor assault case was about to end in January 2022, a new case surfaced after the disclosure of Malayalam director Balachandra Kumar. He told police that he met the prime accused in the actor assault case Pular Suni at actor Dileep’s residence in 2016 when he went to discuss a new project
A trial court in Kochi on Tuesday rejected a petition filed by the prosecution to cancel the anticipatory bail of actor Dileep, an accused in the Kerala actor abduction and assault case.
The prosecution said the actor was trying to influence some of the witnesses in the new conspiracy case related to the 2017 actor assault case and his bail will affect the ongoing investigation. It also said that custodial interrogation was necessary as he had violated bail provisions set earlier by the court.
But Dileep’s counsel argued that there was no proof to establish that he had influenced witnesses and the new case was part of a larger design prepared by the prosecution since its contentions in the 2017 case failed to make any impact. After hearing both sides in detail, trial court judge Honey M Varghese rejected the petition. The prosecution had moved the court to cancel his bail in April after a new case came up in January 2022.
As the trial in the 2017 actor assault case was about to end in January 2022, a new case surfaced after the disclosure of Malayalam director Balachandra Kumar. He told police that he met the prime accused in the actor assault case Pular Suni at actor Dileep’s residence in 2016 when he went to discuss a new project and also claimed that the latter had a video clipping of the assault and he once invited him to see it. He also said he was privy to a conversation that took place in Dileep’s house in which he heard about a conspiracy to eliminate officials who investigated the 2017 case.
Soon after the new disclosure last December, the prosecution moved the trial court for a fresh investigation and the court asked it to file a new case. Dileep, his brother, brother-in-law and two aides were booked under charges of conspiracy, destroying evidence and influencing witnesses in a criminal case. In March, the Kerala High Court had rejected Dileep’s plea to quash the fresh case but later it granted pre-arrest bail and advised him to co-operate with the ongoing probe.
The sensational actor assault case took place in February 2017, when a leading South Indian woman actor was abducted and assaulted in a moving vehicle in Kochi by a criminal gang. Later, the gang members were arrested and the police made Dileep the eighth accused in the case on charges that the crime was carried out at his behest to settle an old score with the woman actor.
