Kochi: Actor Dileep has been granted anticipatory bail by the Kerala High Court on Monday over the case of sabotaging and conspiring to harm investigating officials of the 2017 actor assault case, in which he is named, Live Law reported.
Granting the actor and his co-accused the bail, Justice Gopinath P ruled that the prosecution's apprehensions regarding the investigation can be addressed by conditions. The court said that the prosecution could proceed on arrest if the conditions were violated.
Dileep's counsel had argued before the court that the prosecution intended to trap the actor through the new case instead of proving the charged offences. The entire Police Force in the state is against his client, the counsel said, just because they could not prove his client's involvement in the 2017 assault case. The counsel further said that the new case is handled by the crime branch instead of Aluva Police station, where the conspiracy allegedly happened. Therefore, the case is out of vengeance charted by the investigating team and Balachandran Kumar, Counsel said. He had also said that mere words out of anger or outburst at the investigating officers do not count as conspiracy, Live Law reports.
The new case was rooted out of the sensational 2017 assault case after director Balachandra Kumar released audio recordings of the accused attempting to sabotage the original case as well as conspiring against the investigative officials. Dileep and five others, including his younger brother, were charged with IPC Sections of 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) etc., and the case was filed under non-bailable sections.