Kerala govt opposes Malayalam actor Dileep’s demand for a CBI probe in fresh case

Kerala govt opposes MalayalaThe Kerala government on Thursday opposed actor Dileep’s petition to quash the new conspiracy case against him or else hand.

It over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) saying the accused has no right to suggest probe agencies or the mode of investigation.m actor Dileep’s demand for a CBI probe in fresh case

The court witnessed strong arguments in the case and at one point judge Justice Ziyad Rahman asked the prosecution why it was opposing the CBI probe in the fresh case.

But Director General of Prosecution T A Shaji contended that the investigation was going in the right direction and there was no need to engage another agency at this juncture.

The court also asked the prosecution why Dileep’s former friend Balachandra Kumar (film director) did not raise a complaint against the actor earlier if he was in possession of evidence against him.

It also expressed doubts over delay in handing over the audio tapes of a conversation involving Dileep. He handed over the audio tapes recorded in 2017 to the police in 2021, the court pointed out.

But the prosecution said the delay was not a big concern as it happened due to various reasons. It said it has many other corroborative evidences against the actor but the latter said that it was a cooked- up case after the prosecution’s contentions failed one after the other in the actor abduction and assault case.

Dileep’s counsel B Raman Pillai said since the case was framed by officials who investigated the first case, there was no possibility of a free and fair trial in the new case and requested the court to hand it over to the CBI, if it failed to quash the FIR.

On Wednesday while hearing the petition the court had asked the prosecution whether mere utterances heard by the director to harm the investigating officials could be treated as conspiracy. “Can mere utterances be treated as conspiracy?” it asked. After hearing all parties concerned in detail for the last three days the court reserved verdict in the case to next week.

In 2017, a leading Malayalam actor was allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted by a criminal gang in Kochi. Six months after the incident Dileep was arrested for allegedly planning the incident and he was made the eighth accused in the case.

As the trial was about to end, in last December, director Kumar came out with fresh disclosure against actor saying he was privy to a conversation to harm officials who investigated the case. In January first week the crime branch filed a fresh case against Dileep, his brother, brother-in-law and two others.