Kochi, Apr 19 (PTI) In a two-fold blow to actor Dileep, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed his plea to quash an FIR accusing him and others of conspiring to intimidate and kill officials probing the 2017 actress assault and also declined his request not to extend the time for further probe in the latter case.

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The actor, in one plea, had sought quashing of the murder conspiracy FIR or transfer the same to CBI for investigation, claiming that it was an outcome of a personal animosity of the investigating officers in the 2017 case against him, as all the male members of his family have been implicated in it.

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In another plea, he had opposed a Crime Branch application for extending the time for completing the further investigation in the 2017 case saying that the agency was "unnecessarily protracting the investigation to harass him."

The high court had on March 8, while dismissing the actor's plea against the further probe in the 2017 case, given the agency time till April 15 to complete the investigation.

However, the agency on April 7 moved an application seeking three more months to complete the probe.

On Tuesday, at 1.45 PM, Justice Ziyad Rahman A A dismissed Dileep's plea to quash the murder conspiracy FIR or transfer the case to CBI, saying that he has not made out a case for grant of either relief.

The court also said that the offence of criminal conspiracy was attracted based on the statement given by director Balachandra Kumar that the accused have decided to cause harm to five police officers.

Incidentally, the murder conspiracy FIR as well as the further probe in the 2017 case, both were based on the revelations by Kumar.

Later in the afternoon, Justice Kauser Edappagath granted the Crime Branch time till May 30 to complete its investigation in the 2017 case and rejected the actor's opposition to the same.

The court said that in the facts and circumstances of the matter, it was inclined to grant some more time to the investigating agency to complete its probe in the 2017 case, but also hinted that it might not give any more time after expiry of the May 30 deadline.

However, in some consolation for the actor, Justice Ziyad Rahman in his order said that the offences of abetment and intimidation -- as mentioned in the murder conspiracy FIR -- were not attracted as there was no material or information in the FIR indicating the same.

The actor and five others were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people) and later Section 302 was also added to it for allegedly conspiring to murder the officials probing the 2017 actress assault case.

The actress-victim, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some persons who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by those persons to blackmail the actress.

There are 10 accused in the 2017 case and police have arrested seven. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)