In a plea asking for the rejection of bail given to actor Dileep, alleged mastermind of the Kerala actor assault case, additional public prosecutor KB Sunilkumar has urged the court to consider the cases Dileep got involved in and the kind of influence he has been wielding on the witnesses. Dileep, the eighth accused in the 2017 assault case, became the prime accused in another case of conspiracy earlier this year. The prosecution’s plea asks the court to see it very seriously that the man who is an accused in the sexual assault of a woman actor has become an accused in another case for allegedly conspiring to kill police officials investigating the first case. It should be seen an important reason for rejecting his bail plea, the prosecution says.
Reminding the court that it allowed the second FIR – on the conspiracy case – to stand, despite Dileep’s plea to quash it, the bail rejection plea touches on the alleged attempts by the accused in destroying evidence. This includes data deletion from phones of the accused, incriminating voice clips and proofs for allegedly influencing the witnesses. New voice clips incriminating Dileep and others rose towards the end of last year when his former friend and director Balachandrakumar released them to the police. This gave rise to further investigation in the assault case as well as the new conspiracy case.
In connection with the conspiracy case, Dileep and the other accused including his brother Anoop and brother-in-law Suraj had been asked to submit their phones at the court. The court had then sent it to the forensic science lab in Thiruvananthapuram. In its plea for bail rejection, the prosecution says that a majority of the data on the phones had been removed, submitting the forensic reports to prove it. Last month, Sai Shankar, a cyber-expert, also revealed that Dileep’s lawyer had approached him to have a large amount of data removed from two of his phones. He gave a statement under section 164 of the CrPC in this regard.
The prosecution has also submitted voice clips allegedly of Dileep’s lawyer coaching Anoop to lie about Manju Warrier, Dileep’s former wife, and to say that Dileep had no connection with Pulsari Suni, the prime accused, among other things in connection with the actor assault case. Another voice clip allegedly on Dileep’s phone is about an attempt to influence the judge in the trial court of the assault case.
Further proof of Dileep’s men allegedly trying to influence witnesses such as Vipin Lal and Jinson, the prison mates of Pulsar Suni, Sagar Vincent, an employee of Dileep’s wife Kavya Madhavan’s store Lakshya, Sarath Babu and Doctor Hyderali were also included in the bail petition plea.
In another development, the police took the statement of Bishop Vincent Samuel of the Neyyattinkara diocese, who was rumoured to have helped Dileep get his bail earlier. The Bishop however dismissed the rumours, while admitting that he knew Balachandrakumar.
Watch: Explainer: Dileep’s response to Balachandrakumar’s allegations