Once popular Malayalam cine actor Dileep who is facing charges in a case related to the abduction and sexual abuse of an actress earlier this year, had his bail plea turned down by the Kerala High Court on Tuesday.
The court decision means that the actor, who has for years been a household name with his Onam movie releases, special television programmes during the festive season, and in his earlier days released humour-laced audio offerings for the Onam season, will spend this festive season in jail.
This is the third time that the actor’s bail plea is being rejected by the courts. Initially his bail application was turned down by the Angamaly Sessions Court, and the high court had also rejected his bail plea once.
In between, Dileep had changed his first lawyer, B Ramkumar and opted for the services of K. Raman Pillai. The change of legal advice, however, has not helped the actor’s cause so far.
Arguing against giving bail to the accused actor, the prosecution submitted that there had been proof to support the allegation against him that he was a party to the conspiracy to abduct and sexually abuse the actress, and that he was a person of considerable personal influence.
Dileep contented that he was innocent and that there was a concerted effort to malign him. In response, the prosecution argued that it had clinching evidence that Dileep had links to ‘Pulsar’ Suni, one of the key accused in the case.
The prosecution has also argued that Suni had worked as driver for Dileep’s wife and actress, Kavya Madhavan and that Dileep had spoken to Suni on Madhavan’s phone.
The actor who has now completed 50 days in jail looks likely to spend a longer time there, considering that his bail pleas have been rejected thrice.
The prosecution submitted that the investigation into the high-profile case is in its final stages and that giving bail to the actor at this stage may lead to the actor influencing witnesses.
The actor still has the option to approach the federal Supreme Court of India to move another bail petition.
