HC dismisses actor Dileep’s plea against further investigation

High Court asks the police to complete the investigation before April 15.

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, dismissed a petition filed by actor Dileep seeking to quash further investigation in the actor sexual assault case being conducted following revelations of alleged hatching of a conspiracy to murder investigation officers in the assault case.

Also read: Assaulted actor vows to fight it out legally

Justice Kauser Edappagath also directed the crime branch to complete the further investigation before April 15. The crime branch has registered an FIR and started a further investigation based on the statements given by director Balachandrakumar who claims to be a close associate of Dileep.

Dismissing the plea of Dileep, the court observed that “ the petitioner is not entitled to get the relief sought for in the petition. The investigation agency can go on with the further investigation. However it shall complete the further investigation and file a further report as expeditiously as possible, at any rate not later than April 15”, The court also observed that it had not made any findings or observations as to “the veracity, truthfulness, reliability of the disclosure made” by Balachandrakumar against Dileep and others or as to “the genuineness, relevance or acceptability of any material collected” by the investigation agency so far in the ongoing investigation. Opposing the actor’s plea, Director General of Prosecution T.A. Shaji had submitted that no material was produced to substantiate the allegation by the petitioner that there was mala fide intention on the part of the investigation officer to fabricate the case against him. He submitted that the conspiracy was hatched in secrecy. Dileep was an extremely influential person. The crime branch had identified 81 points from the statements of Balachandra Kumar and the agency got evidence connecting these points. In fact, the investigation was almost complete. Counsel for the survivor had argued that there was certain material about the alleged conspiracy by actor Dileep who is the eighth accused in the actor assault case, it was necessary to conduct a further investigation to find out whether Dileep was a culprit or not in the alleged conspiracy hatched to murder the police officers.

The counsel had argued that carrying out further investigation even after filing the charge sheet was a statutory right of the police. The material collected in the probe could not be rejected only because it had been filed during the trial of the actor assault case. It was in fact a prerogative of the police to conduct further investigation. Let further investigation be continued and the truth be brought out, the counsel said. Supreme Court had ruled in many cases that the accused had no role to play in the decision to order further investigation, he observed.  Counsel for Dileep submitted that director Balachandrakumar was “hired” by investigation officer Baiju Paulose and made him issue the false statement when the police officer realized that the trial in the sexual assault case was not going in the prosecution’s favour. He also submitted that it was a cooked-up story.

The crime branch was conducting further investigation to protract the trial in the actor assault case because the investigation officer had not been able to produce any material to implicate Dileep in the sexual assault case., the counsel contended ,