The crime branch, which is investigating the case, approached the trial court seeking cancellation of the bail granted to Dileep.
Published Feb 28, 2024 | 2:07 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 28, 2024 | 2:07 PM
Kerala High Court. (Creative Commons)
The Kerala High Court on Wednesday, 28 February upheld the trial court’s order not to cancel the bail of Malayalam actor Dileep in the 2017 actor assault case.
The government’s plea to cancel the bail was reviewed by a bench under Justice Sophie Thomas.
Passing the judgement on the petition, the justice mentioned that the court’s remark in the case should not affect the trial.
The crime branch, which is investigating the actor assault case, approached the trial court seeking the cancellation of Dileep’s bail. As the trial court rejected the plea, the crime branch approached the high court with the same demand.
According to government prosecutors, Dileep has been influencing witnesses and meddling with the evidence. However, Dileep denied this allegation.
The Kerala High Court said that it was of the view that if Dileep’s bail was cancelled now, “it may lead to further litigations and complications which may frustrate the trial which is about to be completed and may drag the proceedings indefinitely”.
It further stated that the crime was of the year 2017 and “after a long drawn trial, it is nearing completion. So this court is of the view that let the trial be completed and the case be disposed of at the earliest.”
“The crimes, if any, registered for destroying evidence, influencing or threatening witnesses or for the conspiracy to do away with the investigating officers etc. may take its course till it is logically concluded in accordance with law,” Justice Thomas said and disposed of the plea moved by the prosecution.
The prosecution also sought quashing of the observations made by the lower court while declining to cancel the bail of the actor.
The prosecution, represented by Director General of Prosecution (DGP) TA Shaji and additional public prosecutor P Narayanan, expressed apprehensions that the lower court’s observations might hurt the appreciation of evidence by the court conducting the trial.
The DGP urged the Kerala High Court to clarify that the lower court’s observations were only to dispose of the plea to cancel Dileep’s bail and could not have any adverse influence on the appreciation of evidence in the case.
The High Court noted that the lower court’s observations may tend to appear as if the judge “has made up her mind as to the destruction of evidence and influencing the witnesses, etc.”
Therefore, the High Court clarified that the findings and observations by the lower court were only to dispose of the prosecution’s plea to cancel Dileep’s bail and “it shall not affect the appreciation of evidence” in the main case.
“The trial judge has to appreciate the available facts and evidence in the case independently and untrammelled by any of the observations and findings in the lower court order,” Justice Thomas said in the order.
According to The Mathrubhumi, the prosecution argued that the trial court quashed its request without examining the evidence presented. It also stated that the reference to the inauthenticity of the voice messages as evidence of influence was wrong.
While declining to cancel Dileep’s bail, the lower court observed that it could not conclude that he deleted evidence in connection with the case for the simple reason that the forensic lab’s report contains the fact that some conversations were deleted.
The court also observed that it cannot hold that the actor caused the disappearance of evidence simply for the reason that the mobile phone was subjected to examination in a private lab.
There are 10 accused in the actor assault case, including Dileep—who is the eighth accused. The police arrested seven. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail.
In his affidavit placed before the High Court, Dileep said the allegations made by the government in the petition to cancel his bail were baseless. He added that these claims were rejected by the court many times before.
Dileep further stated that the trial court already examined 259 prosecution witnesses.
He asserted that there was no point in thinking that he would influence the investigating officer and the joint director of the forensic lab.
On 21 February, in a setback to Dileep, the Kerala High Court directed the Ernakulam District and Sessions Judge to hand over a copy of the fact-finding report to the survivor in the actor sexual assault case.
The actress-victim, who worked in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some persons who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of 17 February 2017 and later escaped in a busy area.
The entire act was filmed by those persons to blackmail the actress.
(With PTI inputs)
