Actor Dileep has asked the Kerala High Court to quash the first information against him and five others in a case related to the alleged conspiracy to kill investigating officers of a 2017 sexual assault case, Live Law reported on Monday.

Last week, the High Court had granted anticipatory bail to the actor in the conspiracy case.

Dileep’s counsel, Philip T Varghese, claimed that the first information report filed on January 9 was vindictive, ill-motivated and a malafide act done with oblique motives. The actor added that the case was registered based on bogus evidence.

On January 9, the Kerala Police’s Crime Branch had registered a new first information report against Dileep based on a purported audio clip in which he is heard asking some persons to “wait to see how the five investigating officers are going to suffer”.

Filmmaker Balachandrakumar, who said that he was a friend of Dileep, had released the audio clip. It was subsequently aired by Malayalam news channel Reporter TV, which led to the first information report.

The officers that Dileep allegedly wanted to kill were investigating a case pertaining to an actor who was reportedly kidnapped and sexually abused inside her car for two hours on February 17, 2017. Dileep is among the 10 accused persons in the case and is the alleged mastermind of the assault.

Dileep said that the first information report in the murder conspiracy case of police officers violated Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (information relating to the commission of a cognisable offence), The News Minute reported. He said that there was no material to attract any offences mentioned in the first information report.

If the first information report cannot be quashed, then Dileep asked for the inquiry to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Three years ago, Dileep had also asked the High Court to transfer the sexual assault case against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation, The News Minute reported. However, the court did not accept his request.

On February 4, Director-General of Prosecution TA Shaji had said that there was already some proof of the witnesses being influenced in the 2017 sexual assault case. Shaji added that Dileep and the other accused persons had the money to sabotage the trial and investigation.

However, Dileep’s lawyers have contended that the police force was against the actor as they could not establish that he was guilty in the sexual assault case.