Breaking| Dileep Shall Not Be Arrested Till January 27: Kerala HC Asks Him To Appear Before Police For Interrogation Till Then

During the hearing, it was also observed that the allegations against the accused were undoubtedly grave and that the investigation had to be protected. 

"The allegation is that the accused was overheard conspiring to kill police officers, which is a very serious allegation and the mighty State is absolutely entitled to investigate the same."

During today's elaborate hearing, Senior Advocate B. Raman Pillai instructed by Advocate Philip T Varghese contended that even if the entire allegations of film director Balachandrakumar were taken into account, the same does not constitute abetment or conspiracy to commit murder under Section 302. 

They asserted that while prosecution has every right to investigate into allegations, they cannot insist on custody of the petitioners since no offence was made out even if the entire documents are taken into consideration.

On the other hand, Director General of Prosecution T.A. Shaji and Additional Public Prosecutor P. Narayanan submitted that only a thorough custodial interrogation will enable prosecution to get sufficient evidence of conspiracy.

It was argued that grant of bail would interim protection to the actor and his men would be detrimental since they were very influential.

To justify this, they pointed out that in the sexual assault case before the trial court, a large number of prosecution witnesses had turned hostile allegedly due to the actor's influence. 

The counsels placed reliance on Supreme Court judgements to contend that in cases where the offence alleged is that of criminal conspiracy, the success of interrogation will depend very much on the kind of custody that is available to the prosecution.

They added that when the accused is protected by anticipatory bail, it woulld very difficult to conduct an investigation.

On Friday, the Court decided to hold a special physical hearing on Dileep's anticipatory bail plea.

Yesterday, the court also remarked that the special hearing was not scheduled since it's importance trumps other case. According to the court, since a counter affidavit has been filed and the court will have to peruse a lot of documents, such a measure is necessary.

Interestingly, Dileep had also approached the High Court to issue a gag order on the media until the trial in the assault case at the lower court is over. Later, the high court asked State Police Chief to enquire into the allegations raised by actor that the media was flouting the trial court's order restricting the publication of matters related to the 2017 actor assault case.

It is pertinent to note here that Dileep is also facing trial in the sexual assault case as the major conspirator behind the abduction and assault of the actress in 2017.

Earlier this month, Director Balachandra Kumar had released audio recordings of people including Dileep trying to sabotage the case and obstruct the trial. In his statement, he added that Dileep and his men tried to endanger the lives of the officials.

Following his statements, the trial court had collected a confidential statement from the director.

Consequently, Dileep and five men were booked under Sections 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) r/w Section 34 (common intention) of IPC. The new case was filed under non-bailable sections.

Apprehending arrest, Dileep, his brother P. Sivakumar and his brother-in-law T.N.Suraj have approached the Court praying for anticipatory bail.

The applicants had claimed that they are innocent and have been falsely implicated in the said offences. They have asserted that the registration of the said FIR directly by the Crime Branch is 'nothing but a vindictive and retaliatory act' of Crime Branch DySp Baiju Paulose.

Dileep had recently initiated contempt of court proceedings against Paulose for allegedly causing obstruction to the administration of justice. The Additional Special Judge has issued notice in this petition on 4th January.

On 20^th January, in response to the pre-arrest bail plea moved by actor, Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) alleged in his statement that the case against Dileep is perhaps the first instance in the State's history where a quotation has been given to a criminal gang to commit a sexual offence including an offence under Section 376 of IPC.

The statement filed through Public Prosecutor P. Narayanan also submitted that this is also the first time where the prime accused has hatched a devious plan to eliminate the police officers investigating the case against him.

Previously, on 14^th January, Director-General of Prosecution T.A Shaji gave an undertaking to the Kerala High Court that Dileep would not be arrested till January 18 in the case registered for conspiring to kill the officers.

In an earlier hearing of the case, Dileep had claimed that the allegations about conspiracy to kill the police officers were a 'mockery'.

The anticipatory bail plea was filed through Advocates Philip T. Varghese, Thomas T. Varghese, Achu Shubha Abraham, Litha V.T, Monisha K.R and Nitya R.

Case Title: P. Gopalakrishnan alias Dileep &Ors v. State of Kerala &Anr.