KOCHI: The crime branch has informed the Kerala High Court that it has collected ample evidence against actor Dileep and other accused persons in the alleged conspiracy to murder the police officers who investigated the 2017 actor abduction and assault case. Therefore, their custodial interrogation is essential and they should not be granted anticipatory bail.
After the conclusion of arguments of the prosecution and Dileep’s counsel on Thursday, Justice Gopinath P declared that the order will be pronounced on Monday. When the anticipatory bail pleas of Dileep and other accused persons came up for hearing, Director-General of Prosecution T A Shaji and Additional Public Prosecutor P Narayanan said the offences alleged against these persons are very serious. A criminal conspiracy was hatched to harm the lives of the investigating officers and the supervising officers of the 2017 actor abduction case in which Dileep is the eighth accused.
The prosecution said the petitioners have not been cooperating with the investigation and made all efforts to conceal the evidence. The mobile phones found to be used by the petitioners as per the call data records (CDRs) were not produced despite the demand. They have already tampered with the evidence which has been proved by the stand they took before the court that some of the phones were entrusted with their private computer technocrats.
There is no guarantee that the phones they now surrendered have not been tampered with. There was no dispute regarding the possession of one mobile phone either in the oral statement of the counsel for the petitioner or in the written objection. But the petitioner purposely did not produce the mobile phone which was used for 221 days, till five months back, with which 2,075 calls were made by Dileep saying that it was not in his possession.
In the present case, there is direct evidence of a witness who witnessed the commission of criminal conspiracy and gave an oral statement. The statement of P Balachandrakumar is supported by the audio clippings of the conversation made with the accused. The statement itself is sufficient to hold that the offence of criminal conspiracy was committed by the petitioners, said the prosecution.
What the probe team unearthed
Conspiracy at ‘Padmasarovaram’, Dileep’s house in Aluva, on November 15, 2017, to endanger the lives of probe officer Baiju Poulose and supervisory officers M J Sojan, SP K S Sudarsan, then SP A V George and then IG B Sandhya by Dileep, his brother Anoop and brother-in-law Suraj. Balachandrakumar was in the room for a discussion of his cinema project titled ‘Pickpocket’.
Conspiracy at flat complex on MG Road: In December 2017, Dileep, Anoop, Suraj, etc. gathered at the flat owned by Manju Warier (former wife of Dileep). There, they conspired to endanger the life of Baiju Poulose.
During May 2018 when proceeding in his car (KL07 BF2007), by the front of Police Club, Aluva, Dileep uttered that “we must burn them all”.
Threat on court premises: On January 31, 2018, when the trial of the actor assault case was going on in Special Court, Ernakulam, while walking close by Baiju, Dileep said with a threatening tone that “hope you and your family are doing well”, indirectly indicating it would no longer be possible.
Conduct of the accused: Within a few days of the disclosures by Balachandrakumar, Dileep and others removed the SIM cards, concealed their phones and started using new ones.