Malayalam actor and producer Vijay Babu, accused of sexual assault of a fellow actor, was taken into police custody on the morning of Monday, June 27 at Kochi. The Kerala High Court, on granting anticipatory bail to the accused actor, had granted the police limited custody to question Vijay between June 27 and July 3, from 9 am till 6 pm. The police have now taken Vijay Babu in for questioning and his arrest was recorded on Monday.
"If the investigating officer intends to arrest the petitioner, then he shall be released on bail on the petitioner executing a bond for Rs 5,00,000 with two solvent sureties each," the court order had said.
It was in the last week of April that a woman actor who has worked with Vijay lodged a complaint against him, alleging him of sexually assaulting her in March this year. Vijay who had at the time been in Dubai came live on a Facebook video, claimed he was innocent and named the woman actor, against the law. He later deleted the video but refused to come to Kerala for weeks and the police had to issue a lookout notice. It was only when he was assured of pre-arrest bail on reaching Kochi that Vijay returned. The High Court, hearing his petition for bail, granted him pre-arrest bail with certain conditions.
On Sunday, June 26, Vijay was seen attending the general body meeting of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (A.M.M.A.). He had written to the association in early May, saying that he would stay away from the executive committee of which he was a member, until he was proven innocent. Members of the Internal Committee of the A.M.M.A. had exerted pressure on the association to take action against him, after which Vijay’s letter came. Disappointed by the inaction, three of the four members of the IC had then quit. At the Sunday meeting, the office bearers said that it seemed the association did not need an IC, while Malayalam cinema itself may form one or more.