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 Digital Desk: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a petition from the Kerala government appealing the anticipatory relief given by the Kerala high court to actor/producer Vijay Babu in a case involving an alleged rape last month.

 

The high court's June 22 ruling was challenged by the complainant, a 25-year-old Malayalam actor who accused Vijay Babu of sexually assaulting her. She said that every day he is out of custody puts her and other prosecution witnesses in danger.

On a combined statement from senior attorneys Jaideep Gupta for the state and Raghenth Basant for the complainant, a vacation bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari of the Supreme Court directed the case to be listed for hearing on Wednesday.

 

The accused Malayalam actor  Vijay Babu was ordered by the high court to turn himself in on June 27 and was given till July 3 to answer any questions. Gupta stated, "This is a man who initially fled to Dubai and then to Georgia, returning only after having his passport seized by local officials. The pressing issue is that we cannot continue questioning him until this order is overturned.

 

Speaking on behalf of the complaint, Basant said, "He came on Facebook Live and gave the world my name. His presence outdoors poses a threat to me every day.

 

The bench decided to list the two petitions urgently in light of the seriousness of the allegations.

Before granting pre-arrest bail to the accused, the high court order heard arguments from the state and the complainant. The June 22 order came to this conclusion by noting that the victim was aware of the accused's marriage and that, as long as it persisted, there was no chance of a lawful marriage with the complainant.

 

The starlet said in her police report that the accused sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions after the initial incident on March 16 of this year. When she refused his attempts, she was once physically tortured. On April 22, the police filed a first information report (FIR) against Vijay Babu, alleging rape in violation of IPC Section 376, criminal intimidation in violation of IPC Section 506, and inflicting harm (IPC Section 323). The accused escaped to Dubai soon after the FIR was filed.

 

The prosecution claims that the accused's behaviour was improper because he published the survivor's name on Facebook Live on April 26 and fled to Georgia to avoid capture because India does not have an extradition agreement with this nation. The accused is facing trial in a different case for revealing the survivor's identify. He didn't enter the nation until his passport was seized, according to the state. The police discovered that the history of communications between the accused and the complainant from March 16 to March 31 had been wiped from the accused's mobile phones.

 

The accused, however, rejected the rape charge and asserted that he and the complainant were having a consensual relationship. He claims that the complainant filed a rape accusation after learning that another actress had been cast in her part in a forthcoming film produced by the defendant.

 

Granting anticipatory bail to the accused would be fatal to the current case's ability to be tried, the complainant warned the highest court. She claimed in her petition that if the contested judgement is upheld, "every wealthy and powerful person, such as respondent (Vijay Babu), against whom a FIR is registered for a serious, non-bailable offence, will immediately flee the country and return only after he gets an order of ad-interim anticipatory bail."

In their appeal, the Kerala government also questioned whether it was appropriate to grant protection to a suspect who fled the country and then later requested anticipatory bail as a prerequisite to cooperating with an investigation.


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