Four days after the High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea, A.S. Sunilraj, alias Appunni, a close aide of actor Dileep, on Monday appeared before the Special Investigation Team for interrogation.
The interrogation of Appunni, who had been absconding since the arrest of Dileep, began at the Aluva Police Club around 11 a.m. and lasted six hours. The premises of the police club witnessed high drama when Appunni sent a doppelganger to deflect media attention. To the midst of a huge battery of mediapersons waiting outside the police club, a person bearing resemblance to Appunni arrived around 10.40 a.m.
Mistaking him as Appunni, mediapersons vied to capture his footage and posed a flurry of questions to him. He, however, did not respond and slowly entered the police club. By the time the reporters identified him as Shibu, elder brother of Appunni, the latter had already reached the police club compound in a car. Following the interrogation, the police seized Appuni’s mobile phone, which will be sent to examine call records. Official sources also hinted at the possibility of interrogating him again.
Appunni was summoned for interrogation with the police noticing his presence on almost all occasions when Dileep held discussions with ‘Pulsar’ Suni, the key accused in the actor abduction case. Further, the SIT could also gather solid evidence of him meeting Vishnu, the ninth accused in the case, purportedly on behalf of Dileep, to settle the outstanding with Suni.
Filmmaker’s statement
The SIT also collected statements of filmmaker V.A. Sreekumar Menon.