Victim's fear of improper probe in actress abduction case unfounded, says Kerala govt

Kochi, May 25 ( IANS) The Kerala government on Wednesday submitted to the court that fear of the victim in the 2017 actress abduction case that the probe is not going in the right direction is "unfounded".

The victim on Monday had filed a petition that she fears the probe is not going in the right direction and sought the intervention of the Kerala High Court.

On Tuesday, when the case was posted before a bench, the judge recused himself and the matter was posted in the bench of Justice Siyad Rehman, who heard it on Wednesday.

The court asked the state government to file an affidavit on this.

The victim in her petition alleged that massive political intervention has taken place as the Crime Branch team is set to submit its final report on May 30 for further investigation.

However, the court pointed out that it cannot intervene in the date of the submission of the final probe report, as it was fixed by another bench.

The court then posted the case for Friday.

The victim had expressed deep concern that while the arrest of Malyalam actor Dileep took place in 2017, but things now appear to have turned topsy-turvy, and since she has no other way of getting justice, she is approaching the High Court.

Last month, Crime Branch chief DGP S.Sreejith was moved out of the post and a new officer took over.

This move has been attributed to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's new political advisor P. Sasi.

There are two cases against Dileep. One is the 2017 actress abduction case in which he is the eighth accused and was in jail for over two months, and the second case was registered in December last year that he has conspired to do away with the police officials who accused him in this case.

Incidentally this issue has now become the major point of discussion at the May 31 Thrikkakara assembly by-election with the Congress led UDF raking it up in a big way and termed the hype of the Vijayan government towards women safety and security is an eyewash.

But Vijayan himself on Tuesday while speaking at an election rally said that the government has always been concerned with this case and has been strongly with the victim.