Kochi: The Kerala High Court ordered actor Dileep on Saturday to handover of the mobile phones used by him and other accused in a case, for allegedly threatening the investigating officials probing the 2017 actress assault case. Court ordered them to hand over the phones to the registrar general of the High Court in a sealed packet before 10.15 am on Monday.
The Single Judge Bench of Justice P Gopinath said, ‘If the accused wants to go to the Supreme Court then they can’. When the accused refused to hand over the mobile phones, the Court said, ‘If you object to hand over your phone, a rape accused can say tomorrow that he will not give a potency test’. The court also rejected the request of Dileep’s counsel to extend the deadline for the same to Tuesday. The counsel said that the phones have been sent to a private agency in Mumbai for forensic examination as the actor distrusted the agencies in the state.
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The court dismissed this argument and added that the evidence collected by a private agency will not be valid in court. ‘Only evidence collected by government approved forensic agencies is acceptable before court,’ it added. The prosecution has also requested the court to cancel the interim stay on the arrest of the actor till the hearing of the anticipatory bail in view of his non cooperation. The court will consider the case again on Monday.
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