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Police produce Malayalam actor Dileep in a court in Kochi in 2017. Image Credit: PTI

Kochi: For actor Dileep, Thursday was a busy day at a few courts and the first event happened at a local trial court near his house at Aluva, which decided to send six mobile phones of the actor and his close aides to the state-run Forensic Laboratory in the state capital for further investigation.

Almost at the same time, his counsel filed a fresh petition at the High Court seeking to stop further investigation in the case registered following fresh disclosures by a former friend and director Balachandrakumar in December last year.

And in the afternoon, his anticipatory bail plea in the above case which has been hanging fire for the past few weeks was heard by the High Court.

Kochi, Jan 26 (ANI): Mollywood actor Dileep returns from the Kerala Crime Branch office after the third consecutive day of interrogation in a case registered against him for allegedly threatening the officials probing the sexual assault of an actress in 2017, in Kochi on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)
Dileep at the Kerala Crime Branch office in Kochi on January 26. Image Credit: ANI

His counsel argued that the fresh case surfaced following the joining of hands between the police and Balachandrakumar, who both have an axe to grind.

Veteran lawyer B Raman Pillai arguing for Dileep said the two parties have joined together and there is not even an iota of evidence, other than a pen drive where all the allegation against the actor has been stored.

Pillai also asked where the laptop and other equipment is. The only item is a pen drive that contains sounds that are not clearly audible and “broken statements”.

At the time when the court was to close the hearing for the day, it said the arguments will continue on Friday at 1.45pm when the prosecution will be heard and proceedings for the day will end.

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But putting a brave face was Balachandrakumar who said Pillai does not know what the evidence is against Dileep.

“Just wait, very soon all the details of the crucial evidence against Dileep will be coming out,” said Balachandrakumar.

Last week, the probe team had moved a fresh application claiming that the actor had conspired to do away with the officials probing the case and this came after the actor, his brother Anoop, brother-in-law Sooraj, aide Appu alias Krishnadas, and close friend Byju Chengamanad were interrogated for 33 hours over three days.

A frontline South Indian heroine had complained that she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of goons in 2017 and certain scenes were filmed to blackmail her. After the main accused Sunil was arrested and questioned, Dileep was accused of being the main conspirator in the case and arrested.

According to the prosecution, Dileep, who is presently out on bail after spending two months in jail, had also seen the visuals of the attack on the actress.