KOCHI: The special team conducting further investigation in the actor abduction and assault case on Tuesday served notice on Dileep to appear for interrogation on Monday. The actor was initally asked to appear at the Crime Branch office in Kochi for questioning on Thursday. However, he requested to postpone it to Monday citing personal reasons.
Dileep was interrogated by the Crime Branch in January this year as part of the probe into the alleged conspiracy to kill police officials who probed the actor abduction and assault case. April 14 is the deadline set by the Kerala High Court for completion of further investigation in the case.
According to sources, the further investigation is in the concluding stage in which evidence and statements collected have to be verified in the presence of Dileep.The probe team gave a report last month to the High Court claiming that more than 20 persons were questioned as part of the further probe.
According to reports, people from the Malayalam film industry, including the witnesses who had turned hostile during the trial of the case, will also be interrogated by the special investigation team. A few leading film actors had turned hostile during the trial.
The further investigation was launched when the witness examination phase of the trial was all set to conclude and only the investigation officer was to be examined. This followed revelations by film director P Balachandrakumar against Dileep.
As many as 203 witnesses were examined as part of the trial before the further investigation was launched. It was on February 2017 that a leading actor was abducted while travelling from Thrissur to Kochi and sexually assaulted in a moving vehicle. Dileep is the eighth accused in the case.