The Kerala Police on Wednesday filed the chargesheet against Malayalam movie superstar Dileep in the sensational case pertaining to the brutal assault against a frontline actress in February. Slapped with serious charges including criminal conspiracy and gang rape, the superstar has been named as eighth accused in the case. Dileep had spent 85 days in prison under judicial remand in connection with the case.
As per the additional chargesheet submitted by the investigating officer in charge, Circle Inspector Baiju V Paulose, for a special investigation team in the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Angamaly, near Kochi, the trial court, there are a total of 12 accused in the case pertaining to the attack on the actress and the conspiracy behind it.
Dileep has also been slapped with charges like kidnapping and destruction of evidences. The additional chargesheet was submitted by keeping the seven accused – including first accused Sunil Kumar alias Pulsar Suni – in the same numerical positions of accused as in the first chargesheet that concerned the physical and sexual assault against the actress.
As per the supplementary chargesheet, two would become approvers for the Prosecution. They are Aneesh, a policeman who had allegedly helped Pulsar Suni to use a phone for calling Dileep from the prison, and Vipinlal, a law student who had prepared a letter for the first accused for the alleged purpose of blackmailing the superstar.
According to the special probe team, Dileep and Suni are the only persons involved in the conspiracy. It claims that the conspiracy to attack the actress had started in September, 2013 and had been held at three different locations in Kochi and Thrissur. The seven persons named as accused in the first chargesheet are those who were directly involved in the attack.
The superstar, who allegedly possessed a nature of ‘elephantine revenge’, plotted the heinous crime against the actress because he thought that her interventions had been instrumental in the events that had led to his divorce with first wife, famous dancer-actress Manju Warrier, the chargesheet said.
Manju’s name has been included in the chargesheet as one of the key witnesses. About 50 of the total 385 witnesses mentioned in the additional chargesheet, which has 1,452 pages in 2 volumes, are from the film field. The police have attached 33 confidential witness statements and about 450 documents to the chargesheet.
The probe team, headed by Additional DGP B Sandhya, had earlier planned to name Dileep as first accused in the case but this was dropped reportedly following the legal advice that drastic changes would have to be made to the structure of the case for this and that it could lead to legal complications that might weaken case itself.
The frontline actress was assaulted and videographed in the awkward condition by a gang led by Suni, the hoodlum hired by Dileep, in a car on the night of February 17 last when she was on her way to Kochi from Thrissur. Suni and some of his associates were arrested within a week of the incident and the first chargesheet in the case was filed subsequently.
The superstar, arrested on July 10 on the charge of giving a Rs 1.5-crore ‘quotation’ to Pulsar Suni to abduct, assault the actress physically and sexually and videograph her in the awkward situation, had been lodged at the Sub-Jail in Aluva, his hometown near Kochi, till October 3, the day the Kerala High Court granted him bail.
The High Court had the other day ordered release of Dileep’s passport, surrendered in the Angamaly court as per the conditions for bail, for six days for travelling to UAE for the opening of the Dubai branch of his restaurant chain, “Dei Puttu”. Dileep, however, has to submit in the court the entire details of his trip in advance.
The police have found that Dileep had tried to influence witnesses after his release from jail on bail and the refusal to turn approver by an accused, who had earlier agreed to this, is proof of this. Sources said the Prosecution might seek cancellation of Dileep’s bail as it feared that he, a highly influential movie star and businessman, could still try to derail the case.