KOCHI: The Additional Special Sessions Court on Monday framed charges against actor Dileep and nine other accused persons in the actor abduction case. The court will decide on the date to commence the trial of the case on Tuesday.
As part of the procedure, Dileep appeared before the court at around 11 am. The prime accused Pulsar Suni appeared late due to traffic block while brought from Thrissur Central Jail. Other accused persons Martin Antony, Vijesh, Saleem, Pradeep, Charly Thomas, Sanal Kumar and Vishnu were present at the court.
At around 11.10 am, the court started proceeding to frame charges against the accused behind the closed doors. The relevant portions of the charge sheet including offences charged against each accused by Special Investigation Team (SIT) were read out to the accused. All the accused persons including Dileep pleaded not guilty in the case which was recorded by the court.
Various charges against accused persons are- IPC section 120(A), 120(B), 109, 342, 366,354, 354(B), 376(B), 106(1), 201, 212, 34, IT Act- 66(E) and 66(A).
Later, the court asked for the date to start the trial of the case. Dileep's counsel asked the court to start the trial on January 29. However, the prosecution requested to start the trial on January 27. Pulsar Suni's counsel submitted January 28 to start the trial. The court after hearing the counsels decided to fix the date and schedule the trial on Tuesday.
The court also asked the prosecution to file a list of witnesses who are to be examined. The prosecution will file the list on Tuesday. There are 359 witnesses in the case and prosecution likely to omit some of them in the initial stage itself. Other than witnesses, there are 616 documents and 250 Material Objects to examined during the trials. The proceeding for framing charges against the accused last for nearly an hour and ended at around 12.10 pm.
Earlier, on Saturday, the court had dismissed the discharge petition filed by Dileep in the case. Dileep is likely to approach the higher court against Additional Special Sessions Court's decision soon.
On February 17, 2017, a Malayalam film actor was abducted and molested inside a moving vehicle. The videos of the attack were recorded. Dileep was arrested on July 10, 2017. Last year, when Dileep had approached the Supreme Court seeking a copy of the visuals of the victim, the court directed to complete the trial of the case within six months time period.