KOCHI: The crime branch recently took over the investigation into two cases registered against a cyber expert who is the seventh accused in the conspiracy to kill officers probing the 2017 actor assault case. The move came as the agency is looking to turn cyber expert Sai Sankar an approver in the conspiracy case involving actor Dileep. The two cases against Sai for extortion and cheating had been registered in 2015 and 2019 at the Hill Palace police station in Kochi and Nadakavu station in Kozhikode, respectively.
In the conspiracy case, Sai is accused of erasing data from the mobile phones of Dileep in January before they were surrendered for forensic analysis. Sai had initially alleged that crime branch officials threatened him into giving a statement against Dileep and lawyers. However, he turned against the actor after his arrest. Last week, his statement was recorded by the magistrate court in Kochi under CrPC Section 164.
The two cases against Sai had been transferred to the crime branch on March 30, before his arrest in the conspiracy case, following an order by the state police chief.
The cases
Hill Palace police station had booked Sai and others on October 7, 2015, for extortion, impersonation and forgery. The accused persons – Sai, Narayana Das, Dibin, Sameer and Mayookhi – tried to extort money from a businessmen through honey trap and by threatening to name him in a narcotics case.
Posing as an officer from Narcotics Control Bureau, Sai allegedly took Rs 5 lakh from the businessman. Crime Branch Ernakulam DySP N C Rajmohan is assigned the probe into the case (Crime number 51/2022). The second case was registered at Nadakavu police station on September 9, 2019, on the complaint of Mankavu resident Minhaj M K, 28. Sai is the lone accused.
The FIR re-registered by the crime branch on March 30 says Sai allegedly swindled `36 lakh from Minhaj on the pretext of supplying electronic goods stocked at a warehouse in Chennai. Kozhikode Crime Branch DySP Sajeevan T is probing the case (Crime number 52/2022).Sources said the cases were transferred to the crime branch following a March 30 order by the state police chief (T6-10403/2022/PHQ). “The police chief referred the two cases to us. Several cases are pending against Sai and the chief wants thorough investigation into them,” said a crime branch official.