The Kerala High Court is likely to pronounce its judgment on a petition filled by actor Dileep against the decision of the trial court to simultaneously try the female actor rape case and a court charge that three accused in the case had conspired and threatened him to extort money.
Though the prosecution did not have a case that the three accused, Sunil, Sanilkumar and Vishnu, had threatened actor Dileep, also an accused in the rape case, the trial court had included it in the court charge. The three were also accused in the rape case. Counsel for the actor contended that the two charges shall not be tried together and the actor shall not be tried along with the other accused in the case, as it would adversely affect his defence. The counsel also said that the charges in the two cases shall be split and tried separately.
At the same time, senior government pleader Suman Chakravarthy submitted that it was a technical error on the part of the trial court in deciding to trying the two charges together. The charges can any time be altered or modified by the court, he submitted. Mr. Chakravarthy also submitted that the three accused never tried to extort money. In fact, it was an attempt of the accused to reach out to the actor to collect the remuneration for copying the visuals of the rape, he submitted.
Later, when the court considered the case after a break, the prosecution submitted that the charges of criminal intimidation slapped on the three accused will be dropped and the conspiracy charges retained. Incidentally, the trial in the rape case is to begin at the CBI Special Court on Thursday.
