The Kochi City police have initiated measures to issue a Blue Corner notice against the absconding Malayalam actor-producer Vijay Babu who is facing charges of raping an upcoming actor and then revealing her identity in a social media outburst.
Police chose to act after Babu failed to respond to the police communication turning down his request seeking time till May 19 to appear for interrogation and to share his present location. He is absconding since the registration of the case for rape by the Ernakulam South police and is suspected to have taken refuge in Dubai. He is yet to reveal his location but would only say that he is abroad for business purposes.
“We have set in motion the process of issuing the Blue Corner notice through Interpol,” said C.H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City).
The Blue Corner notice will help the city police to track down the accused with the help of UAE police following which he can either be brought back by a team from Kochi or be deported back.
Police, however, have chosen to go slow on impounding the passport of Babu with the focus now on getting the Blue Corner notice issued at the earliest. Police had planned to impound the passport by getting the relevant orders from the court thus leaving his passport and visa stamped on it invalid.
“We have also completed the investigation into the second case against him for revealing the identity of the survivor,” said Mr. Nagaraju.
The South police had initially registered a case for rape on a petition by the actor on April 22 by which time Babu had managed to flee to Dubai from Bengaluru. A second case under IPC Section 228A was registered against him on April 27 after he went ballistic against the survivor on social media and ended up revealing her identity opening a floodgate of abuse against her on social media.
Since then Women in Cinema Collective has joined forces with the survivor and asked for stringent action against Babu. While Babu had moved a plea for anticipatory bail in the High Court, it would now be taken up only when the court resumes after the summer recess on May 18.
Babu had volunteered to appear before police in view of this but police summarily rejected it citing that the accused could not dictate the timing in such affairs.
