Kerala HC adjourns hearing on anticipatory bail plea of actor Dileep to Jan 21

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday adjourned to January 21 the anticipatory bail application of actor Dileep and five others in a case registered against them for allegedly threatening investigation officers probing the sexual assault of a Malayalam actress in 2017.

It also extended the interim protection from arrest to the actor, till Friday.

Justice Gopinath P said the matter will be heard on Friday after the prosecution sought more time.

The court, while considering the anticipatory bail of the Dileep and others on January 14, had asked for the recorded statement of movie director Balachandra Kumar in the fresh case against the actor.

Kumar, who had recently made some startling revelations against Dileep in the actress assault case through media, had also recorded his statement in connection with the threatening case before the Crime Branch wing recently.

Besides Dileep, his younger brother -- P Sivakumar -- and brother-in-law -- T N Suraj -- have also moved the high court seeking the same relief.

The Crime Branch had on January 9 registered a case following a complaint by an investigating officer based on a purported audio clip of Dileep, which was released by a TV channel recently in which the actor was allegedly heard conspiring to attack the official.

The actor and five others were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offense), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people).

The joint plea moved by all three has claimed that the complaint made against them by the officer -- DySP (Crime Branch) Baiju Paulose -- was "false".

They have contended that the allegations in the FIR, registered on the base of the complaint, are "wholly false and baseless".

The victim -- who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films -- was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress.

There are 10 accused in the case and initially, police arrested seven people. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail later.