Kerala HC reserves order on actor's anticipatory bail plea

The Kerala High Court today reserved its orders on the anticipatory bail plea of Malayalam actor Kalabhavan Mani against whom a case has been registered for allegedly roughing up two forest officials during a vehicle search near Athirappaly in Thrissur.
Justice S S Sateeshchandran reserved orders on the plea.
The actor stated that he was innocent and was abused by the two forest officials when he tried to prevent them from insulting his friend's wife who was in the car. Mani also claimed that the officials had addressed him by his caste.
Police had lodged an FIR on the basis of a complaint by the two forest officials and charged the actor under Sec 506 (criminal intimidation), 322 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servants from duty) and 249b (uttering obscene words) of IPC.

According to the complaint, Mani objected to his car being searched by the officials when it was passing through Kannamkuzhi.
Mani and his friends allegedly pushed aside the officials, a beat forest officer and a deputy range officer, and drove away from the spot. After some time, they returned to the forest office and allegedly roughed up and abused the officials.