In relief for actor Dileep, the Kerala High Court has directed police not to arrest till January 27 the accused in a case for allegedly threatening investigation officers probing the actor sexual assault.
While hearing the anticipatory bail plea filed by actor Dileep, the bench observed that conspiracy is equal to committing the crime.
Actor Dileep’s lawyers alleged that the case of him conspiring to harm the investigation officers in the actor assault case was fabricated and the investigators and prosecution were determined to throw his client behind bars.
“Five years after the incident, they are now coming up with new concocted stories. They should produce some valid material to substantiate their case,” Dileep’s counsel argued.
The defence added that all accused in the case would be willing to appear for hours-long interrogation but they were not willing to submit to a “roving investigation”.
Opposing the anticipatory bail plea, the prosecution said that the case would require questioning of the actor for at least five days. They also assured that the accused would not be harassed.
Police had on January 9 registered a case on a complaint filed by an investigating officer based on a purported audio clip of Dileep, in which the actor was heard conspiring to attack officials investigating the sexual assault of an actress back in 2017..
The audio clips came out soon after a director, Balachandrakumar, made some startling revelations against Dileep in the actress assault case through a TV channel.
South Indian actor Bhavana Menon who has been a part of various Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu films, courageously opened up about her alleged assault case.
After almost five years the actress took to her Instagram account and issued a statement where she narrated her journey ‘from being a victim to becoming a survivor” and how she overcame it.
The incident took place in February 2017, when Bhavana was allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by four men, 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.
Malayalam actor Dileep was accused of plotting the abduction and sexual assault due to alleged personal enmity with the actress.
Various media reports also claimed that Dileep had allegedly paid men to abduct and assault the actor, and even ordered them to take videos of the assault, to exact revenge on her.