Kochi: The Kerala High Court Friday postponed the hearing on the bail plea submitted by actor Dileep, who is in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the actress abduction and assault case. The popular actor had moved the plea Thursday.
In his plea, Dileep alleged that there was a 'large-scale conspiracy' hatched by a small but powerful section of the film industry and certain others who could manage police, media and political leaders to spread utter falsehood and malicious stories about him for months together.
It ultimately resulted in his being implicated and arraigned as accused in the case about three months after the submission of the final report against the accused in the actress abduction case.
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"He is only the unfortunate victim of an orchestrated media campaign and proceedings of a group of police officers acting on the pre-conceived notion of guilt of the petitioner and wanting to implicate him as an accused," the petition said. Dileep further said that he had completely cooperated with the probe.
'Never knew Pulsar Suni'
The petitioner said in his entire life, he had never seen, met or talked with prime accused Pulsar Suni. He never knew him by name or face and there is not even a remote possibility of any such person meeting him at any point of time.
The actor also submitted that his continued detention was delaying the shooting and release of movies affecting the livelihood of people associated with them.
He said many of his film projects had been stalled since his arrest, causing a loss of Rs 50 crore. Senior advocate Raman Pillai appeared for Dileep.
The HC had earlier rejected his bail plea, citing that there was prima facie evidence of his involvement in the case.
Dileep, charged under various sections of the IPC, including for hatching criminal conspiracy into the February 17 attack, is currently lodged in a jail in his hometown Aluva.
The police said the conspiracy to abduct and assault the actress and film the act was hatched by Dileep and Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the case.
In their remand application, they had also claimed that Dileep had a grudge against the actress for letting his then wife know about his alleged affairs and had hatched a conspiracy to take revenge way back in 2013.
The actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and harassed inside a car for two hours.
(With inputs from PTI)
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