With actor-producer Vijay Babu accused of raping a young woman actor still proving elusive, the Kochi City police have adopted a two-pronged strategy to bring him back.
On one hand, they have initiated moves to get a Red Corner notice issued against him by the Interpol through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the international organisation’s nodal agency in India. The notice was likely to be issued by Tuesday night. The police had already warned about such a move if Mr. Babu failed to heed their repeated demands to return to Kerala to face the investigation.
“We initiated the process after it became clear that he had not boarded either of the two flights from Dubai to Kochi on Tuesday. Once the notice comes into force, he would be arrested and brought here. We are also trying to get him deported through the embassy there, which can be done without the Red Corner notice,” said C. H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City).
Though Mr. Babu had reportedly slipped out of Dubai to Georgia, he had to return to Dubai after the police got his passport impounded. The police are also tracking his movements in Dubai.
However, the police said that they had not received any official communication about Mr. Babu’s counsels producing before the High Court his travel documents as proof of his scheduled return to Kochi from Dubai on May 30.
Meanwhile, the counsel for Mr. Babu informed the High Court that tickets had been booked for his return to the country. The counsel also produced the travel documents indicating his travel back home on May 30.
When his anticipatory bail petition came up for hearing on Monday, the court had observed that his plea would be considered only after he produced travel documents indicating his return.
Mr. Babu was booked for rape by the Ernakulam South police on April 22 soon after he had fled to Dubai via Bengaluru. He was slapped with another case five days later for revealing the survivor’s identity in a social media outburst. Since then, the police had secured a Blue Corner notice by the Interpol and an arrest warrant against him.
