Malayalam actor and eleventh witness in the actor assault case of Kerala, Manju Warrier, appeared before the trial court in Ernakulam on Tuesday, February 21. She has been called to identify voices of several of the accused from audio recordings This includes her former husband and actor Dileep, who is the alleged mastermind of the crime. Last week, Dileep had approached the Supreme Court to oppose the plea of the prosecution to reexamine Manju Warrier and other witnesses in the case. However, the court allowed the prosecution to proceed.
The reexamination happens in light of the new evidence that surfaced after director Balachandrakumar, who was once close to Dileep, made certain revelations about the case towards the end of 2021. The trial was about to come to a close, but with the new evidence, the police had asked for more time for further investigations, which was granted by the court.
Following Balachandrakumar’s revelations, he began producing a number of audio clips, purportedly containing voices of Dileep, his brother, brother-in-law and others, making incriminating statements. One of these had led to the police filing a new case against Dileep and others, for allegedly making threats to kill the investigating officials in the case. Manju Warrier has now been recalled to identify if the voices in these clips belong to Dileep and the other accused she had been familiar with.
The prosecution has asked for the examination of an additional 41 witnesses, some of which are reexaminations of witnesses who had earlier given statements.
Six years ago, a prominent woman actor was abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of men in a moving car in Kochi. While the police nabbed the gang of men accused to have committed the crime, including Pulsar Suni the prime accused, Dileep’s name cropped up a few months later as the man who allegedly masterminded the crime. Dileep was questioned and arrested and imprisoned for a few months, but he came out on bail later. The trial has been going on for three years.