The Kerala Crime Branch on Wednesday, January 26, sent a notice to Dileep and three others, saying that they had swapped their phones for new ones after they were booked in the new case over the alleged conspiracy to kill the officer probing the 2017 actor assault case. In the notice, the police have asked the four to produce their old phones, suspecting them of hiding evidence.
Shortly after Dileep was booked in the new case, Kerala police conducted raids on the actor’s home. During the raid, the police had seized the phones of four persons — Dileep, Anoop, Suraj and Appu. However, after an examination of the call detail records (CDR) on the phones, the police reportedly found that the phones were allegedly changed and all the seized phones were new ones. Police sources said that the phones were bought on January 9, the day the new FIR was registered.
Based on this, suspecting that the accused are trying to hide evidence, a notice has been sent by the Kerala Crime Branch asking them to produce all their old phones.
Actor Dileep, accused in the actor sexual assault case in Kerala, and five others have been booked by the state police Crime Branch and a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against them on January 9. The case pertains to an audio clip in which a voice, allegedly belonging to Dileep's brother-in-law Suraj, can be heard talking about a conspiracy to murder the investigating official and Deputy Superintendent of Police Baiju Paulose.
The conversation, allegedly between Suraj and Dileep, took place in November 2017 at the latter's house in Aluva. A series of audio clips from that period pertaining to the sexual assault case were also released by filmmaker Balachandrakumar, who said he was a friend of Dileep. Reporter TV released the audio clips which have led to the filing of the FIR.
The new FIR was filed against six people — Dileep, Dileep's brother Anoop, Dileep’s brother-in-law Suraj, Anoop’s brother-in-law Appu, a man that Balachandrakumar addressed as 'VIP,' and one another person. They were charged under IPC sections 116 (abetment of offence punishable with imprisonment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life), 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people).
The Kerala Crime Branch was granted three days to question Dileep in the new case, as directed by the High Court, and the police are expected to file a report on the same on Thursday, January 27.