Actress rape case: Kerala HC grants anticipatory bail to producer-actor Vijay Babu

Kochi: Malayalam movie producer and actor Vijay Babu was on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail by the Kerala High Court in a rape case against him.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas granted Babu the relief subject to the conditions that he shall appear before the police from June 27 to July 3, shall not intimidate the actress-victim or her family, he shall not leave Kerala and if he has been issued a fresh passport, he shall surrender the same.

The court said if Babu is arrested by the police, he shall be released on bail on furnishing a bond of Rs 5 lakh along with two sureties of the same amount.

During the period he is enjoying the interim protection from arrest, the film producer shall be deemed to be in police custody, the court added and disposed of Babu's plea seeking anticipatory bail in the rape case.

The court had granted him interim protection from arrest on May 31 and since then it was being extended from time to time.

In his plea, Babu had 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 victim's identity through a Facebook live session.

The producer-actor had also alleged in his plea, that there is a "trend" of making sexual allegations against anybody to tarnish the image of a person who is having popularity in society and for the sake of publicity.

Babu had 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".

The woman, who appeared in movies produced by Babu's production house, lodged a complaint with the police on April 22 and detailed through a Facebook post the physical assault and sexual exploitation she had allegedly suffered at the hands of the producer-actor for the past one-and-half months.