BREAKING| Kerala High Court Dismisses Dileep's Plea To Quash FIR In Murder Conspiracy Case

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea moved by Dileep to quash the FIR filed by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police against him and five others for conspiring to murder the investigation officials in the 2017 actor rape case, in which Dileep is facing trial as the chief conspirator.

Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A opined that even if what is revealed from the allegations is a doubtful case for making out the offences at the stage of FIR, the benefit of the doubt should go in favour of the investigation and not to the accused because interference in the investigation at this stage would foreclose all opportunities for the police to collect materials in support of the allegations.

"In my view, the duty of the court is not confined to seeing that no innocent person is punished but also to ensuring that proper punishment is granted to the real culprits. Therefore a balance has to be struck, and I find that a proper balancing can be made in this case, by allowing the investigation to continue." 

The Court also added that the lack of any preliminary inquiry by itself cannot be a reason to quash the proceedings while holding that offences of abetment and criminal intimidation have not been made out in the case. Nevertheless, offence under 120B (criminal conspiracy) was found to have been made out.

However, it was clarified that the findings and observations herein were only to ascertain whether the petitioner has made out a case for invocation of powers of this Court under Section 482 of CrPC at this stage and that none of the findings shall preclude him from raising his contentions at appropriate stages and invoking his remedies for challenging the final report filed against him in this case.

Transfer To CBI:

Regarding Dileep's alternative prayer seeking the case to be transferred to the CBI, the Judge noted that merely because the conspiracy alleged against him is to commit a crime against the police officers, it cannot be concluded that the police are interested in the matter, and it would affect the neutral status of the police.

"...in the absence of any material indicating influence being thrust upon him at the instance of such superior officers, an order for transferring the investigation to another agency cannot be made."

Similarly, regarding the registration of crime against the petitioner based on an incident that occurred in 2017, the Court noted that although traces of over-zealousness on the part of the authorities can be found, unless the same is found to be tainted with malafides, no interference can be made at the said investigation.

"In this case, I could not find any materials revealing any ulterior motive or malafide on the part of the investigating agency. In such circumstances, I do not find any reason to allow the prayer sought for the transfer of investigation in this case."

Background: