2017 actress assault case: HC issues notice to actor Dileep

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to Malayalam actor Dileep on the appeal filed by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police that sought cancellation of bail granted to him.

Dileep is the eighth accused in the 2017 Actress Assault Case who is now alleged of violating bail conditions by the Kerala Crime Branch.

Earlier on June 28, the trial court dismissed the plea of the prosecution seeking to cancel the bail granted to actor Dileep.

The case pertains to an actress, who worked in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu films, and was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017.

On October 28, Principal Sessions Court in Ernakulam rejected the discharge petitions of Dileep and his friend Sarath from the offense of destroying the evidence in the investigation report of the 2017 Actress Assault Case.

The court made it clear that the new charge of destroying evidence against Dileep and Sarath will remain and directed both to appear in court on the 31st of this month (October). The further trial of the case will resume on November 10.

The crime branch has imposed the offense of destroying the evidence against Dileep and Sarath earlier. The court rejected the argument of both of them that there were no new findings in the investigation conducted on the basis of witness Balachandra Kumar’s revelations.

The investigation team in the case has included more than 300 related documents in the further investigation report, which has 112 witnesses.

But the court also rejected the prosecution’s contention that Dileep had sent his phones to forensic experts in Mumbai and tried to erase the data using hackers, without complying with the High Court’s order to produce the phones for examination.

The investigating team informed the court that the film director and the witness in the case, Balachandra Kumar was present at the scene when Sarath brought the footage of the actress being attacked on an iPad and brought it to Dileep’s house.