On Tuesday, 29th March 2022, Malayalam actor Dileep appeared before the crime branch for the second consecutive day. Being an eighth accused in the 2017 actress assault case, Dileep turned up for the interrogation today in connection with the case.
The interrogation is ongoing in the presence of ADG, Crime Branch S Sreejith at Aluva Police Club. On Monday, March 28, 2022, the interrogation with Dileep went on for around seven hours. After which, Today, he was called for the second day of interrogation.
With respect to the case, the Kerala High Court earlier directed the probe team to conclude the investigation into the case before 15th April 2022. According to Economic Times news report, the number of accused in the case was 10. Seven of the accused including the key accused Pulsar Suni were arrested hitherto. Taking the seriousness of the case into consideration, until now the court is hearing the case proceeding in camera.
Evidence and custody:
When the High court was hearing the case proceedings in 2017, Actor Dileep was taken into custody. The Kerala police also said during 2017 that it has enough evidence to jail the actor. Later he was also jailed but soon after he got bail and was released.
Trail and allegations:
According to an article published in Huffpost, the Kerala High court on February 2019, to hear the case of the actress appointed a women judge. In the special CBI court, during January 2020, the trail of the case had begun. But the Kerala High Court stayed the case after the allegation made that the court was being aversive and biased by the prosecution and the survivor.
The survivor approached the high court to transfer the case to any other court as she reasoned that the lawyer of actor Dileep harassed her while the judge Honey M Varghese encouraged.
Moreover, supporting the survivor, even the public prosecutor representing the Kerala Government urged the high court to transfer the case to any other court. A Suresan, the public prosecutor also alleged that the judge violated the cross-examination procedure and favoured the accused.
Charges and plea:
On January 20, 2020, a trial court framed charges against the ten accused, including Dileep – the eighth accused. All the accused were present when the charges were framed against them in the additional special session court in Ernakulam.
As usual, all the accused denied the charges pressed against them. Subsequently, Dileep filed a plea in the court seeking exclusion of him from the accused list. But the court had rejected the plea since there prevails prima facie evidence against him concerning the crime.
Furthermore, the court had also did not allow the actor’s plea to grant him time for 10 days to file an appeal in the high court. The plea was rejected by the court considering the November 2019 Supreme court’s order stating that the trial of the case should be completed within six months duration.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had allowed the actor to inspect the records of the case in order to enable him to give out a strong defence during the trial. Following the SC order, the 54-year-old actor along with his lawyer and technical expert in the closed room of the court examined the contents of the electronic records of the case on December 19, 2019.
Following a chain of events, at last, after several years of trail, the slow-paced case of the Malayalam actress abduction and molestation is now moving rapidly since the high court’s order to conclude investigation by April 15.
Published By : VATSAL KOTHA
Edited By : KRITKA KASHYAP
