Actor-producer Vijay Babu arrested in rape case

By Express News Service

KOCHI: Actor-producer Vijay Babu was arrested by the Kerala police at the moment within the rape case involving a Malayalam actress. Ernakulam South Police recorded the arrest when he appeared earlier than the officers for interrogation.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court had granted anticipatory bail to him and directed the petitioner to give up earlier than the investigating officer on June 27 at 9 am for interrogation. 

Police mentioned Vijay Babu can be launched on bail as per the course of the court docket however solely after accumulating proof from the inns and flats the place the alleged crime occurred as per the criticism.

The police registered two circumstances towards him, one for the sexual assault, and one other for disclosing the id of the complainant by social media.

The High Court had directed that Vijay Babu may be interrogated for the following seven days — from June 27 until July 3, between 9 am to six pm every single day, if required. The court docket additionally said that if the arrest is recorded, then he must be launched on bail after executing a bond for Rs 5 lakh.

The petitioner ought to seem earlier than the investigating officer as and when he’s summoned, the court docket mentioned. It additionally mentioned that he mustn’t contact or work together with the sufferer or any of the witnesses, nor ought to he take pleasure in any type of assault by social media towards the sufferer or her household. He shall not depart Kerala with out prior permission of the court docket, it directed.

ALSO READ | Actor Maala Parvathi quits AMMA’s sexual harassment panel following inaction on Vijay Babu

The Association for Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) invited wrath after it prolonged assist to Vijay Babu, saying any motion can be taken solely after the court docket’s verdict. He attended the chief committee assembly of the physique which was held in Kochi on on June 26.

The court docket had granted him interim safety from arrest on May 31 and since then it was being prolonged once in a while.

In his plea, Babu had alleged that the rape case has been filed towards him to blackmail him.

He has been accused of allegedly sexually assaulting a feminine actor and disclosing the sufferer’s id by a Facebook stay session.

The producer-actor had additionally alleged in his plea, that there’s a “trend” of constructing sexual allegations towards anyone to tarnish the picture of an individual, who’s having recognition in society and for the sake of publicity.

Babu had claimed that he was harmless and was “highly aggrieved” by the one-sided strategy of the authorities to make him a “scapegoat for the purpose of news and the media”.

The lady, who appeared in motion pictures produced by Babu’s manufacturing home, lodged a criticism with the police on April 22 and detailed by a Facebook submit the bodily assault and sexual exploitation she had allegedly suffered by the hands of the producer-actor for the previous one-and-half months.

The lady’s lawyer, opposing Babu’s plea, had argued earlier than the court docket that the actor-producer had allegedly “misused and abused the trust reposed on him by her”.

It was additionally argued on her behalf that being a novice artist, her objections have been simply subdued and that she was allegedly subjected to repeated sexual assaults by him.

(With PTI inputs)