KOCHI: Kerala High Court on Thursday declined to stay the probe into the case registered for conspiring to murder police officers who investigated the actor abduction and sexual assault case. When the petition filed by Dileep seeking to quash the FIR in the case came up for hearing, counsel for Dileep sought an interim order staying the probe. Justice K Haripal said that the “investigation can go on and the court cannot interfere at this stage.”
The judge ordered that the petition be posted for a detailed hearing before another judge next week as he could not hear the petition in detail since he would be retiring from service in May. The petition said further probe in the case was not permissible as a final report had been filed in November 2017, charges were framed in January 2020 and only one prosecution witness, the investigating officer, remained to be examined.
Crime Branch summons cyber expert for interrogation
Kochi: Crime Branch probing the case related to conspiracy to murder police officers who investigated actor abduction and rape case has issued a notice to cyber expert Sai Sankar to appear before it on Friday. A Crime Branch team conducted a search at the house of Sai Sankar in Kozhikode on Thursday morning. Recently, Sai had filed a petition in Kerala High Court claiming that the Crime Branch team probing the conspiracy case is persuading him to name advocate B Raman Pillai for destroying evidence from the mobile phones of the accused, including actor Dileep. However, the investigation team found that data from the mobile phones of accused persons, including Dileep, were retrieved using the laptop of Sai.
Crime Branch suspects that Sai was involved in the destruction of evidence. After interrogation, Crime Branch will decide on arraigning Sai as an accused in the case. Meanwhile, the Crime Branch seized a tablet phone and two mobile phones from the house of Sai during the search. A Crime Branch team from Kochi conducted the search which lasted for a few years. The conspiracy case was registered after director Balachandrakumar gave a statement that Dileep, his brother, and four others had conspired to kill officers who probed the actor abduction and rape case.