Actor-Producer Vijay Babu has been accused of sexually assaulting a female actor.
A case was registered against Vijay Babu for alleged rape on April 22 and then five days later he was slapped with another case for disclosing the victim’s identity.
Kerala High Court will hear the anticipatory bail plea of Malayalam actor-cum-producer Vijay Babu in an alleged rape case against him today. While hearing, a single bench of Justice Gopinath P observed that Babu has been in Dubai since the case was registered and that it would be better to grant him interim protection so that he comes back to India.
After the prosecution opposed this, Court asked the prosecution, “Are you playing to the gallery or trying to ensure the victim gets justice? If we don’t bring him here, how will she get justice?”
On Tuesday, Babu submitted air tickets before the Kerala High Court indicating his return to India on May 30. The tickets were submitted in court a day after it said that his plea for anticipatory bail would be considered only after he produces travel documents indicating his return to the country. His lawyers also told the court that all the other documents would be submitted before it on Wednesday. Babu, in his plea, has alleged that the rape case has been filed against him to blackmail him.
He has been accused of allegedly sexually assaulting a female actor and disclosing the survivor woman’s identity through a Facebook live session, in clear violation of the law.
In his anticipatory bail plea, the producer-turned-actor said that “the present trend” was that for the sake of publicity anybody can make sexual allegations against anybody to tarnish the image of a person who is having popularity in the society.
“The police are also guided by media reports and they wanted to finish the chapter by arresting the petitioner for the purpose of creating news for the media due to the pressure from media people,” Babu said in his plea.
He claimed that he was innocent and was “highly aggrieved” by the one-sided approach of the authorities to make him a “scapegoat for the purpose of news and the media.”
