The Kerala high court on Tuesday ordered transfer of mobile phones actor Dileep and other accused produced in the conspiracy case to the judicial magistrate court in Aluva even as the crime branch raided the flat in Kochi where the alleged conspiracy to eliminate investigating officers took place.
Justice P Gopinath passed the order when anticipatory bail pleas of actor and others came up for the hearing. For last two weeks the high court has been witnessing intense arguments between the prosecution and counsel for the accused.
During the hearing, director general of prosecutions T A Shaji insisted for custodial interrogation of the accused, saying they were not cooperating with the fresh case.
He said ample evidences were collected and more information could be gathered from the accused through interrogation based on fresh evidences. But the counsel for the accused insisted that the investigating team was busy cooking up new stories and accused were undergoing an intense media trial. The court later adjourned the hearing on bail pleas to Thursday.
Meanwhile the crime branch team raided the flat in Kochi where the alleged conspiracy to kill police officers hatched. The raid was conducted on the basis of fresh disclosure by the director Balachandra Kumar. Last month, Kumar had claimed that Dileep was in possession of the woman actor’s assault video and had tried to influence case witnesses.
He also claimed that he was privy to a conversation allegedly took place in November 2017 at the actor’s flat to eliminate officers. He also claimed to have met the main accused, Pulsar Suni, at Dileep’s residence in 2016.
After Kumar’s revelations the Kerala government had approached the Supreme Court to extend the trial for six more months but it was turned down by the court. But Dileep dismissed his allegations saying he was blackmailing him citing frivolous charges.
Later a fresh case was registered against Dileep and four others and they moved the court for anticipatory bail. The new case came up when the trial in the actor abduction and assault case was to conclude on Feb 16. A leading south Indian woman actor was abducted and assaulted in a moving vehicle in Kochi in 2017 and Dileep is an accused in the case.
