Kochi: The Kerala High Court has deferred the anticipatory bail application of actor Dileep to February 2. The plea pertains to the alleged conspiracy to endanger the lives of the officers probing the 2017 actress assault case.
The Court also directed that he should not be arrested by the probe agencies during this period.
The decision was taken upon the prosecution's request to grant more time to examine the digital evidence.
The anticipatory bail pleas, submitted by six accused, including actor Dileep, were considered by the single bench of Justice P Gopinath.
While considering the case the other day, the court had allowed the Crime Branch to question Dileep and other accused for three days and granted interim protection to Dileep from arrest. The court also asked to submit the probe report in a sealed cover on Thursday after the interrogation.
The report on the progress of the investigation is crucial to both Dileep and the Crime Branch team. The report will contain the details of the interrogation that went on for 33 hours over three days.
Crime Branch's argument
The challenge before the Crime Branch is to prove that an attempt was made to endanger the probe officers, apart from discussing about it.
According to the Crime Branch, there are discrepancies in the statements and that the accused, including Dileep, should be taken in custody and questioned further.
The other accused are Dileep's brother P Anoop, brother-in-law T N Suraj, friend Baiju Chengamanad and Appu (who is a relative of Anoop's wife).
The Crime Branch alleges that Dileep, brother Anoop and Appu had swapped their phones soon after the case was registered, and this was to destroy evidence. But Dileep claimed that the phone he had used earlier was handed over to a forensic expert to retrieve the messages sent by director Balachandrakumar. The report will be obtained within a week and this would be submitted in court.
Dileep's defence
Dileep said that the Crime Branch's notice to produce the phone was not in accordance to law. The phones related to the case were produce in court. The phones of director Balachandrakumar and probe officer Baiju Paulose should be seized. The alleged conspiracy could be proved by checking the phone, Dileep further claimed.
Who all deposed
During the interrogation, the Crime Branch had summoned several people, including the film directors associated with Dileep. To check the veracity of the statements given by the accused, the probe team had summoned and recorded the statements of director and scriptwriter Rafi, Arun Gopi (who directed Dileep-starrer ‘Ramleela’), Dileep's close friend and director Vyasan Edavanakkad, Dileep's confidant Sajith (an advocate from Thiruvananthapuram), and Sijo (the accountant of the recently released movie 'Kesu Ee Veedinte Nadhan').
Alappuzha native Dasan, who was working at Dileep's house when the alleged incident happened, and also the staff of Dileep's production company were summoned and their statements recorded.
The Crime Branch stated that Vyasan was summoned to identify the voice of the accused, including Dileep, in the audio clip that was handed over by director Balachandrakumar.
The advocate, on behalf of Dileep, had allegedly spoken to Balachandrakumar in person at Thiruvananthapuram. The advocate had given statements that corroborate Dileep's allegations that Balachandrakumar had sought money from him.
The probe team had abandoned the move to question Balachandrakumar along with the accused. The probe team's stance is that only after examining the allegations raised by the accused against Balachandrakumar, he need be summoned.
