KOCHI: Actor Dileep has been behind bars for 50 days and he will cool his heels inside the prison walls during Onam festival as the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed his bail plea in the actress assault case for the second time.
Dismissing the plea, the Single Judge observed the investigation was still progressing. “There does not appear to be any substantial change of circumstances. Having considered the entire facts, I am not inclined to grant bail to the petitioner at this stage. The bail application fails and is dismissed,” said the eight-page judgment.
The Director General of Prosecution (DGP) submitted though Appunni, manager of Dileep, was interrogated, he did not cooperate with the investigation.
There were some materials disclosing Pulsar Suni had handed over the mobile phone and the memory card to his counsel - Pratheesh Chacko and Raju Joseph. The advocates, who were questioned by the police, had taken the stand the mobile phone was destroyed. The investigation agency does not believe this and it is trying to unearth the material objects, which are crucial, the DGP stated.
According to the prosecution, Dileep maintained enmity towards the victim on belief that she was instrumental in disrupting his matrimonial relationship, which led to the judicial separation. To wreak vengeance, he allegedly conspired with Pulsar Suni to abduct the victim and record her nude video.
Dileep offered Rs 1.5 crore to Suni for the purpose and an advance of Rs 10,000 was allegedly paid.
Dileep submitted, at the time of filing the final report, there was not even an allegation he was involved in the case. The victim’s statement itself stated Pulsar Suni had informed her that he was acting on a ‘quotation’. However, the police did not conduct any investigation in that angle. They were acting solely based on Suni’s confession, he submitted.
To this, the DGP replied the prosecution was not relying on the confession alone. The accused persons initially hatched conspiracy in a hotel in Ernakulam in 2013. Thereafter, it was repeated at four other places during the period between April 2013 and November 2016.
The tower location of Dileep and Suni were same at that time. The room at Abad Plaza in Ernakulam was booked in the name of Dileep.
According to the prosecution, immediately after the incident, attempts were made by Suni to contact Dileep. Even after being lodged in jail, Suni tried to contact him through his close associates and other sources using mobile phone and landline. The CCTV footage and oral evidence revealed the letter forwarded to Appunni was prepared by Suni inside the jail itself.
According to Dileep’s counsel, one of the grounds for declining bail earlier was that Appunni was absconding. Later, Appunni appeared before the agency and was questioned thoroughly. Further, Suni’s counsel, with whom the original mobile phone and memory card, were entrusted were also questioned.
It was revealed that those materials were destroyed. He contended the mobile phone and memory card were irrevocably lost and no purpose would be served by further investigation on it. Hence, there was substantial change of circumstances and further custody of the accused was not needed, Dileep’s counsel argued. But, the court declined the plea after examining the case diary and other evidence produced by the police in a sealed cover.
Actor Aju Varghese arrested
The Kalamassery Police on Tuesday arrested actor Aju Varghese in the case related to the disclosing of the name of the actress who was abducted and allegedly molested in Kochi, on social media. According to the police officers, Aju Varghese appeared before Kalamassery CI S Jayakrishnan after the High Court dismissed his plea to quash the case earlier.
Along with his petition, Aju Varghese had filed a signed affidavit of the actress in the court which stated that she had no objection to his plea. “We have arrested the actor in the case registered against him under IPC section 228 A (disclosure of identity of the victim of certain offences). However, he was later released on bail”, said Jayakrishnan. He said the chargesheet in the case will be filed soon.
‘Chargesheet will be submitted soon’
State police chief Loknath Behera has said the chargesheet in the actor assault case would be submitted soon. Behera told reporters the collection of evidence is underway and the chargesheet would be submitted once the police collect full evidence.