A Blue Corner notice issued against actor-producer Vijay Babu, who is facing charges of raping an upcoming actor and then revealing her identity, came into force on Thursday morning.
The Kochi City police had on Wednesday initiated the procedures to get the notice issued by approaching the State and national nodal officers of the Interpol. A Blue Corner notice is issued by the Interpol to collect additional information from its member countries about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.
Mr. Babu has been absconding since the first case against him was registered on April 22, followed by a second one for revealing the identity of the survivor. The police had to opt for the Blue Corner notice after the actor declined to reveal his present location during e-mail communication and turn up for interrogation. He would only say that he was abroad for business purposes. He is now suspected to be in Dubai.
UAE police to trace
“With the Blue Corner notice being issued, the UAE police will now trace his address and inform us. The notice will help establish in court that he has been absconding since the registration of the cases,” said C.H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City).
However, the police are tight-lipped on what they propose to do once the UAE police share the location of the accused. Sending a team there to take him into custody remains an option.
The police had asked Mr. Babu to share his location in their reply to his mail volunteering to appear before them on May 19. His mail was seen as a ploy to delay the appearance since his anticipatory bail plea is scheduled to be taken up by the High Court on May 18 after the summer recess. Since then, the police have received no communication from him.
Mr. Babu is suspected to have initially gone to Goa and then to Bengaluru before fleeing to Dubai. When asked whether the police had any evidence of unscrupulous funding of his movies, Mr. Nagaraju replied in the negative and added that it was not relevant to their probe.
