Plot thickens as police raid Dileep's home, offices in Kerala

In a dramatic turn of events, the investigating team of the Crime Branch on Thursday raided the home and offices of actor Dileep in connection with the abduction and molestation of a Kerala actress in 2017.

The cops scaled the walls of the actor’s house, which was unmanned and locked. After the raid which lasted almost six hours, the police seized the actor’s three mobile phones, a computer hard disk, two iPads and a pen drive.

Earlier, reports said, Dileep, one of the key accused in the case, was missing and remained incommunicado, but the actor drove to his Aluva home almost three hours after the raid began. The raids, which began at 11:30 am, lasted almost six hours. The police team, headed by Superintendent of Police Mohanachandran, had split in three for the simultaneous raids. The team had secured the trial court’s permission for the raid.

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The police also raided his film production company, Grand Productions, and his brother and filmmaker Anoop’s residence. This raid comes after fresh allegations made by filmmaker P. Balachandra Kumar against the actor that he was plotting against investigation officers in the 2017 sexual assault case.

The anticipatory bail submitted by Dileep, in this case, is to be heard by the High Court tomorrow (January 14).

Dileep’s lawyer Philip T. Varghese, who is accused of playing an active role in influencing witnesses by bribing them, had been summoned to the house by the raid team. The actor’s sister, who lives near his home, too was called by the police.

The Crime Branch last week registered a case on a complaint filed by an investigating officer based on a purported audio clip of Dileep. It was released by a TV channel recently in which the actor was ‘heard’ conspiring to attack the officials.

Director Balachandra Kumar, who had recently made some startling revelations against Dileep in the actress assault case through media, had also given some corroborative statements to the Crime Branch.

The actor and five others were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offense), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people).

While five people including Dileep, two of his relatives, and two others were named in the FIR, the sixth accused has been mentioned as an “identifiable person.”

Also read: Dileep’s wife Kavya & brother knew about the crime, says filmmaker

The victim, an actor who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area.

The entire act was reportedly filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress. There are 10 accused in the case and initially, the police police arrested seven people. Dileep was arrested subsequently and let off on bail later. The case comes as the trial in the actress assault case was progressing in a court in Kochi.