A week after prosecution sought a new probe into the actor assault case following fresh revelations of a film director, the victim Monday wrote to chief minister (CM) Pinarayi Vijayan and state police chief Anil Kant requesting them to take appropriate steps to ensure speedy justice to her.
The four-year-old sensational case took a new turn two weeks back after director Balachandra Kumar told a news channel that he met the prime accused Pular Suni at actor Dileep’s residence in 2016 and claimed that the latter had a video clipping of the assault. Last week public prosecutor V N Anil Kumar had submitted his resignation to the government. He is the second prosecutor to resign from the post.
In her letter, the victim expressed concern over the inordinate delay in trial and requested them to speed it up after taking new aspects into consideration. She also sought immediate appointment of a new prosecutor. She also said fresh allegations raised by the director should be probed.
The case took place in 2017 when the actor was returning after a shooting assignment in Kochi. She was allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving car by a criminal gang. There were 10 accused in the case. The accused filmed the entire incident and let her go after three-hour ordeal while threatening to release the video if she approached the police.
During the assault, accused Suni had reportedly told the victim that he was given a contract to execute the crime. A day after the incident, the actor filed a police complaint and all the accused directly involved in the crime were arrested. Since speculations were rife that the accused had carried out the assault at the behest of someone, six months after the case, a special team had arrested actor Dlieep and he spent three months in jail.
The case witnessed many twists since then as several witnesses turned hostile and at one point, the state government said Dileep was filing unnecessary pleas in different courts to delay the trial. In November last year, the Supreme Court had directed the special court, headed by a woman judge, to complete the trial in six months. But it was delayed due to the pandemic outbreak and the time period was extended by of six months.
Meanwhile, last Tuesday, Kerala High Court admitted a state government plea seeking to examine more witnesses in the case. On December 21, the trial court had rejected the fresh demand of the prosecution forcing it to move the high court which sent notices to all the respondents in the case.
