Crime Branch slaps 'conspiracy to murder' charge on Dileep in new case

Dileep
'Conspiracy to murder' charge included in FIR, Dileep

Kochi: The Crime Branch wing of the Kerala police on Friday included the 'conspiracy to murder' charge in the case against actor Dileep and five others for allegedly threatening investigation officers probing the sensational '2017 actor attack case'.

The report stating the inclusion of the additional charge was submitted by MP Mohana Chandran, Police Superintendent of Ernakulam Crime Branch to the First Class Mafistrate Court 1, Aluva.

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) earlier.

The new submission stated that the investigating team had included Section 302 IPC (murder) along with 120B in the chargesheet.

Crime Branch statement in HC

The Crime Branch on Thursday filed a statement in the Kerala High Court opposing the anticipatory bail plea filed by actor Dileep in the new case registered against him.

In its statement, the Crime Branch said it is the first time in the history of Kerala that a person accused of a serious offence hatched a criminal conspiracy to harm the life of investigating officers. "Having regards to the facts and circumstances of the case and considering the involvement of the petitioners in serious offence and that too to harm the life of the personnel of the law enforcing officers of the State, the petitioners are not entitled to invoke such extraordinary discretionary remedy of pre-arrest bail," the Crime Branch said in the statement.

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 said the allegations against Dileep and other petitioners are 'very serious' and said custodial interrogation of the accused is required to unearth the criminal conspiracy hatched by them.

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

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

Baiju Paulose was the chief investigating officer in the 2017 actor assault case. The survivor, a female actor 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.  

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