[BREAKING] Kerala High Court grants anticipatory bail to actor Vijay Babu in rape case

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu in a rape case registered against him after an actress accused him of sexually exploiting her [Vijay Babu v State of Kerala]..Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas delivered the verdict granting pre-arrest bail subject to certain conditions "On a consideration of the circumstances, I am of the view that petitioner ought to be given the benefit of pre-arrest bail, subject to the condition of limited custody to the investigating officer, as contemplated in the decision of the Supreme Court in Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia’s case and in Sushila Agarwal's case," the order stated. .The Court imposed the following conditions for release on bail:Petitioner shall surrender before the investigating officer (IO) on June 27 at 9 am for interrogation;Petitioner can be interrogated for the next seven days that is from June 27 to July 3, both days inclusive, from 9 am to 7 pm everyday;Petitioner shall be deemed to be under custody during the aforesaid period for facilitating requirements of investigation;If the investigating officer intends to arrest the petitioner then he shall be released on bail on the petitioner executing a bond for ₹5 lakh with two solvent sureties each with the like sum;Petitioner shall appear before IO as and when called for;Petitioner shall not call or interact with the victim or any witness or attempt to do so;Petitioner shall not indulge in any form of attack through social media or other modes against the victim or her family; and Petitioner shall not leave the state of Kerala without prior permission of jurisdictional court and shall co-operate with the investigation..The first case against Babu was registered on the basis #MeToo revelations made by a debutante-actress alleging that he sexually exploited her under the guise of considering her for acting roles.After a first information report (FIR) was registered, the police issued a look out notice against Babu since he seemed to be absconding..Babu later went online on Facebook Live and denied all allegations raised against him and more importantly, revealed the name of the survivor while claiming to know the legal consequences of the same. A separate FIR was then registered against him under Section 228A (disclosure of the identity of the victim in certain offences) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The anticipatory bail plea in this case was closed by the Court recently noting that the offence alleged is a available one..Babu first approached the Court for anticipatory bail in the rape case, contending that the complaint against him was an attempt to blackmail him and that there wasn't any non-consensual relationship.The plea, filed through advocate S Rajeev, alleged that the police is guided by the intense media scrutiny and speculations relating to the case.On May 31, the Court granted him interim protection from arrest so that Babu would return from Dubai, where he had been since the case was registered. .The State prosecution led by Additional Director General of Prosecution (ADGP), Senior Advocate Gracious Kuriakose, primarily argued on the basis of maintainability of the plea on account of the fact that it was moved when Babu was absconding.However, the Court opined that Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) does not contain such a restrictive mandate as a person can apprehend arrest even when he is outside the country for an offence that occurred in India."Therefore, I am of the considered view that an application for pre-arrest bail can be filed even by a person residing outside the country. However, the only limitation is that prior to the final hearing, the applicant must be inside the country to enable the court to impose and enforce conditions contemplated under the statutory provisions", the Court said..Advocate R Rajesh, appearing for the de-facto complainant, opposed the bail plea arguing that the evidence tendered by the complainant must be viewed without prejudice, especially since Babu had admitted to the police that he did engage in sexual intercourse with her.The Court, however, said in its order that at the stage of anticipatory bail, it is not proper to meticulously analyse materials collected by the investigation which is meant for the stage of trial. "In this phase of legal proceedings, this Court is only to consider the competing claims of liberty of an individual guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India as against the power of investigation of the police against a person accused of a serious crime," the Court said in its order allowing the anticipatory bail plea.Read more about the order here..[Read Order]