Kerala HC grants Dileep anticipatory bail in murder conspiracy case

The Kerala High Court Monday granted anticipatory bail to actor Dileep and others in a case pertaining to the alleged conspiracy to kill police officers, who investigated the abduction and sexual assault case of a woman actor in 2017. Dileep has been named as an accused in the case.Last month, the Crime Branch registered a case against Dileep and five others, based on information provided by the actor’s estranged friend and film director Balachandrakumar. Of the six accused in the conspiracy case, the Crime Branch named only five people, including Dileep, and the sixth remained as unknown in the First Information Report (FIR). Balachandrakumar has said Dileep hatched the conspiracy on November 15, 2017. Dileep has said that the conspiracy case was fabricated.

The court verdict on anticipatory bail pleas came after several rounds of arguments between the petitioners and the prosecution. Dileep argued that the fresh case was a conspiracy hatched by an officer named Baiju Poulose, who was an investigating officer in the actor’s assault case. Dileep alleged that the new case was fabricated as the prosecution charge against him in the abduction case was weak and the investigators were trying to elicit fresh evidence against him from the conspiracy case.The high court, which considered the anticipatory bail pleas of the alleged accused, had allowed the Crime Branch to question Dileep and others for 33 hours spread over three days. The court had not allowed custodial interrogation of the accused. Subsequently, the Crime Branch had submitted the interrogation report in the court, which is hearing the bail pleas. Investigators had sought the custody of seven mobile phones, which Dileep and his relatives had used in the past.The trial in the abduction case is in the final stage and the court last week granted one more month for the prosecution to examine a few more witnesses in the case.