Won't Arrest Actor Dileep Till Next Hearing on 18 Jan: Kerala Police to HC

The police said that the sexual assault accused would not be arrested till his anticipatory bail plea is heard.

Malayalam film star Dileep is accused of having conspired to orchestrate the rape of an actress.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter\The Quint)

The Kerala Police on Friday, 14 January, told the state High Court that actor Dileep and five others, accused of threatening officers probing a 2017 sexual assault case, would not be arrested till 18 January, when his anticipatory bail plea would be heard again.

Justice Gopinath P said that the court needs to examine the fresh case against the actor, news agency PTI reported. “I would like to see his (director Balachandra Kumar) statement and intend to grant protection till then,” the court stated.

The new First Information Report (FIR) is based on incriminating audio clips allegedly of Dileep, his brother, and brother-in-law, among others, discussing a conspiracy to murder the investigating officer and Deputy Superintendent Baiju Paulose.

These audio clips were released by a film-maker named Balachandrakumar, who said that he was a friend of Dileep.

After the clips surfaced, the actor and five others were booked on 9 January under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including sections 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people), PTI reported.

The high court on Friday did not pass any order for granting Dileep and other accused protection from arrest after the prosecution gave an undertaking that they will not be held.

Earlier this month, the woman who was allegedly sexually attacked in 2017 had written to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about the tardy pace of the trial in the case.

The survivor of the sexual assault, an actress who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in a moving vehicle by the accused on February 2017.

(With inputs from PTI.)