[Actress Assault Case] Kerala High Court issues notice to Dileep in prosecution's plea to cancel bail

The Kerala High Court Wednesday issued notice to Malayalam cine actor Dileep on a plea moved by the State prosecution to cancel the bail granted to him for his alleged involvement in the 2017 actress assault case [State of Kerala v P Gopalakrishnan Alias Dileep]..Justice Kauser Edaggapath issued notice to Dileep through his counsel Philp T Varghese..The court was considering a plea moved by the prosecution challenging the order of the Additional Special Session Judge, Ernakulam which dismissed their plea to cancel the bail granted to Dileep by the high court in 2017.The prosecution contended that Dileep failed to follow the bail conditions and he and his associates were indulging in all sorts of activities including destroying evidence and influencing prosecution witnesses..Dileep and his associates are accused of orchestrating and executing a revenge crime against a prominent actress by having her abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving vehicle.The prosecution stated that the visuals of the sexual assault were captured by the prime accused, Pulsar Suni with a view to clearly reveal the identity of the survivor from the visuals.It is alleged that this was a revenge crime executed by Dileep as he believed that the survivor was responsible for the breakdown of his marriage with the another popular Malayalam actress Manju Warrier.The accused have been booked for various offenses under the IPC, including Sections 366 (kidnapping), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 376D (gangrape).Dileep was arrested on July 10, 2017, but he was granted bail on October 3, 2017 by the High Court.Meanwhile, Dileep was booked in yet another crime based on the allegations by film director Balachandra Kumar that Dileep had been conspiring to murder the police officers investigating the actress assault case. In that too, Dileep was granted anticipatory bail by the High Court in 2021..The plea moved by the prosecution narrated several alleged instances of Dileep coercing some of the prosecution witnesses such as Vipin Lal, Jinson and Sagar Vincent. However, the trial court refused to consider the statements of the witnesses in this regard when the prosecution initially approached it for cancelling the bail. It was also pointed out that Sagar Vincent in particular, had approached the trial court with a separate plea in which he narrated the alleged instances of coercion. It was further alleged that the trial court did not consider alleged destruction of mobile phones of the accused.