Kerala actor assault: Police to set up 3 teams to reinvestigate case

Kerala Police will set up three teams to further investigate the 2017 kidnapping and assault of an actress following new developments in the case, including revelations by film director Balachandra Kumar.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Additional Director General of Police, S Sreejith.

The trial judge in the case had earlier ordered submission of a detailed police report before January 20 after completion of the investigation.

The case pertains to Malayalam actor Dileep, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the conspiracy to abduct and sexually assault the actress in February 2017. The attack, in a moving car, was filmed so that the video could be used to blackmail the survivor.

Kumar filed a petition with the chief minister with copies of audio clips of alleged conversations between Dileep and others regarding the “video of the sexual assault on the actress”.

The director claims that he witnessed Dileep watching the video clip with his brother Anoop and a few others, along with a ‘VIP’ who had brought the clip to his house. He told the media that he was too scared to disclose these details earlier.

Also read: Actress assault case: Director makes new revelations about accused Dileep

One of the newly constituted teams will investigate Kumar’s allegations that a conspiracy was hatched to murder a member of the police inquiry team. It will look into accused Pulsar Suni’s letter to his mother, in which he said he was not safe in jail.

The second team will investigate the director’s revelation that Dileep knew Suni prior to the attack and two were close.

The third team will look into allegations that several prosecution witnesses were influenced by the accused to turn hostile in court.

The ADGP also asked officers to approach the state home secretary and convince him to persuade advocate VN Anil Kumar, who resigned from the post of the special public prosecutor recently, to take up the assignment again.

Sreejith, who is supervising the investigation, said the police would conduct further inquiries as per the directives of the Kerala High Court.

Meanwhile, the inquiry team is plans to take permission from the court in case the statement of the actress needs to be taken again.

The team is unanimous that, if needed, the actor will be questioned again.