Dileep booked for ‘plan to kill investigating officer’ in sexual assault case
The Crime Branch wing of Kerala police on Sunday filed a fresh case against Malayalam actor Dileep based on the statement of film director Balachandrakumar that the former had allegedly conspired to kill the investigating officer and others who probed the sexual assault and abduction of a female actor in 2017. Dileep is one of the accused in the sexual assault case, whose trial is in the last stages at a special court in Kochi.
Two weeks back, Balachandrakumar had told a TV channel that Dileep allegedly watched the visuals of the sexual assault on the actor and maintained a close relationship with the prime accused, Sunil Kumar alias Pulsor Suni, who had worked as a driver in the film industry.
Subsequently, audio clips purportedly attributed to Dileep had come out in media, in which the actor was heard saying that “wait to see how the five investigating officers are going to suffer.” Another person in the audio clip was heard saying “if a truck is hitting Baiju Poulose (the officer who probed the assault case), we would have to see another Rs 1.50 crore.” Balachandrakumar also deposed before the police that Dileep had conspired to kill the investigating officer and his team member.
Last week, the trial court in Kochi had ordered the police to submit a report on January 20 based on the revelation of Balachandrakumar against Dileep. Meanwhile, the prosecution had moved the high court seeking permission to issue summons to a few witnesses for their re-examination following the revelation of Balachandrakumar.
The prosecution had approached the high court after the trial court had rejected the plea. On Friday, while hearing the prosecution appeal, a single bench of Justice Kausar Edappagath had posed the question of how the director’s revelation would help the trial of the assault case. The court observed that there should be a valid reason for re-examination of a witness.
The prosecution had clashed with the trial court several times in the past. Alleging hostile attitude of the court, special prosecutor V N Anil Kumar had walked out of the court in a huff and tendered his resignation. Kumar had assumed office as special prosecutor in 2020 after then incumbent A Sureshan had quit alleging that the trial court was “biased and hostile”.
Meanwhile, the prosecution has also approached the Supreme Court seeking more time for the trial of the case. The apex court in July last year had ordered that the trail should be completed by mid February.
