KOCHI: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2017 actor abduction and assault case is worried about the impact that actor Dileep’s request, seeking mirror images of 32 electronic devices, will have on the witnesses.
The devices include laptops, mobile phones, hard discs, pendrives and DVDs belonging to the accused and witnesses, including a key witness.
“The actor has sought the mirror images of mobile phone recovered from a crucial witness through who we could establish Dileep’s link with Pulsar Suni, the key accused. The mobile phone contains some videos and photographs which are very personal to the witness. Any leak of the phone’s content may impact the witness,” said a source. SIT had also recovered a laptop from one of the witnesses containing sensitive content that is not connected with the case. The mobile phones seized from some of the accused contained obscene videos and pictures.
“Three phones seized from the accused persons contained private chats and videos. There are photographs and videos of ‘girlfriends’ in the mobile of another prime accused. The women are not aware about the videos and photographs and their privacy will be violated if any content gets leaked. The punishment for transmitting such content attracts only three years of imprisonment under the IT Act, while the accused persons are facing trial for rape charges which attracts life imprisonment or a minimum jail term of seven years,” said an officer.
In total, SIT has 359 witnesses, 616 documents and 250 material objects that would be examined during the trial. SIT had failed to retrieve the mobile phone used to record the survivor’s videos. Instead, a memory card containing the video was recovered.