india

Updated: Sep 18, 2017 16:25 IST

A court in Kerala’s Kochi on Monday rejected the bail plea of Malayalam superstar Dileep, who has been in judicial custody for more than two months in connection with the abduction and sexual assault on a popular woman actor.

This was the fourth time the actor’s bail plea has been rejected. Before this, the Angamally (Kochi) judicial magistrate court refused to entertain his plea once and the Kerala high court twice.

While rejecting the bail plea the court agreed with the contention of the prosecution that if he was released at this juncture he could influence witnesses and weaken the case. The prosecution said the case was at a critical stage and would file a chargesheet within 90 days.

Dileep was released for two hours earlier this month to perform his father’s death anniversary rites on the condition that he will not use a mobile phone, follow the investigating officer’s instructions, and will not misuse court’s order.

The actor, charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including criminal conspiracy, has been lodged in a jail in his hometown of Aluva since his arrest on July 10 in connection with the case.

The 31-year-old actor was returning from a film shoot on February 17 when she was allegedly abducted by a gang of criminals and sexually assaulted in a moving car in Kochi.

The assailants allegedly recorded the assault on their mobile phones and threatened to release the clip if she dared to approach the police. During the attack, the main accused – Pulsar Suni – allegedly hinted they were committing the crime at somebody else’s behest.

She lodged a complaint with the police, who arrested all the accused allegedly involved in the crime.

The special investigation team says Suni was allegedly involved in at least 20 criminal cases who reportedly admitted that many actors used his service to settle scores. The SIT is now looking into two similar attacks.

Another woman actor had said there was a similar attempt to abduct her by the same gang but it was foiled after her husband intervened.

Last Saturday, Dileep’s wife and actor Kavya Madhavan filed an application for an anticipatory bail in the Kerala high court. In her plea, Madhavan alleged the team investigating the case was totally “biased, partisan, and ill-motivated”.

She said the officers in the probe team “made open threats of arraying” her as an accused to “cover up lacunas in the unfounded allegations against her husband Dileep and intimidate” everyone associated with him.