KOCHI: Actor Dileep on Thursday claimed in the Kerala High Court that the latest case, accusing him and members of his family of threatening officials probing the sexual assault of an actress in 2017, was a "manufactured complaint" and a "complete imagination" of the police.
The actor's lawyers argued before Justice Gopinath P that there was no conspiracy to kill or attack the officers investigating the 2017 case and the allegations were "concocted" by the police to get him in their custody.
Senior advocate B Raman Pillai and advocates Philip T Varghese and Thomas T Varghese, who represented the actor, contended that the police would go to any extent to trap him. "Stories have been managed and introduced by the police," they argued in court.
With regard to the statement given by film director Balachandra Kumar based on which the latest case has been registered, the actor's lawyers claimed that Kumar had "animosity" towards Dileep for not acquiescing to his demands.
Kumar had recently made some startling revelations against Dileep in the actress assault case through the media. He has also claimed that there is evidence including digital ones to prove that Dileep had influenced the witnesses in the 2017 case.
Meanwhile, a magisterial court in Aluva, which was handed over the phones produced in the high court by the actor and the other accused in the latest case, on Thursday sent the mobiles for analysis to a forensic lab in Thiruvananthapuram which comes under the state police.
In the hearing before the high court during the day, the arguments on behalf of Dileep and the other accused for grant of anticipatory bail in the latest case concluded for now.
The police, represented by Director General of Prosecution T A Shaji and additional public prosecutor P Narayanan, will commence arguments on Friday against grant of anticipatory bail to the actor.
The actress-victim, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area.
The entire act was filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress. There are 10 accused in the case and police have arrested seven. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail.