Kochi, Oct 31: A Kerala court on Monday framed charges of destruction of evidence against actor Dileep in the 2017 actress assault case in which he is one of the accused.

The court framed charges under Sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 204 (destruction of electronic record or document to prevent its production as evidence) of the Indian Penal Code against the actor and his businessman-friend Sarath, Dileep's lawyer Philip T Varghese said.

The court read out the charges to the actor and his friend who denied the same and thereafter, the case was listed on November 3 for scheduling of witnesses by the prosecution, Varghese said.

From November 10 onwards, the examination of witnesses in connection with these two additional charges would commence, the lawyer said.

On October 28, the court had dismissed the actor and his friend's pleas in which they had claimed that the charges were not made out against them.

These charges were invoked against them by the police in an additional charge sheet filed by it in July this year after carrying out a further probe into the 2017 case based on certain revelations made by director Balachandra Kumar.

The sexual assault survivor, an actress who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was allegedly abducted and molested in her car for two hours by the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area.

The entire act was filmed by the accused to blackmail the actress, according to the prosecution. There are 10 accused in the case.

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Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Sunday sought the Election Commission to initiate action against BJP's national president J P Nadda and other senior leaders for allegedly violating the model code of conduct by posting a video on social media intimidating members of SC and ST community not to vote for a particular candidate.

In a complaint to the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, the Congress mentioned about a video uploaded on social media platform 'X' by the official account of Karnataka State Bharatiya Janata Party @bjp4karnataka which is operated by Amit Malviya, the head of IT cell on instructions of J P Nadda, BJP National President, B Y Vijayendra, BJP State President and Social Media incharge- Karnataka BJP on May 4 at 5.34 pm.

"The said video posted on social media featured animated characters of Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah. In the clip, SC, ST and OBC community are portrayed as "eggs" in a nest and it also suggested Rahul Gandhi planting a big egg labelled as Muslim community. It is projected as though funds are being fed to the chick depicting the Muslim community, which then kicks out SC, ST and OBC community."

The letter also stated that nowhere in the Congress party manifesto has it been mentioned that allocations of funds to SC, ST and OBC community will be cut and the same will be diverted to the Muslim community.

"The BJP has been falsely accusing the Congress party of including Muslims in OBC category and with such false propaganda the saffron party has been soliciting votes during Lok Sabha elections," it alleged.

The KPCC further alleged that the video was posted on BJP's official X handle with an aim to garner votes in Lok Sabha polls.

"It is clear that the video social media post by them is to intimidate members of SC/ST community not to vote for Congress party by projecting that funds reserved for them will be usurped by Muslims," it said.

"The act of the accused person is to wantonly provocate rioting and promote enmity between different religions and is prejudicial to maintenance of harmony apart from intimidating members of SC/ST community not to vote for particular candidate and causing enmity against members of SC/ST community," the letter added.

The KPCC has urged the poll body to initiate suitable action.