A day after the Kerala High Court restrained Malayalam actor Dileep’s arrest till January 27, the former along with four other accused appeared before the crime branch in Kochi on Sunday.
The accused will be questioned in connection with the conspiracy to eliminate the police officer who was investigating Dileep’s involvement in a woman actor’s abduction and assault case.
Dileep reached the crime branch office in Kalamassery around 8.50 am. A senior officer said the questioning session will be recorded for transparency. The court had asked Dileep to appear before the investigating team for three consecutive days. It also asked officials to submit a report on the interrogation in a sealed cover by Thursday and asked all the accused to co-operate during the investigation.
The actor, who is seventh accused in the case, and others had moved the court after a fresh case was registered against them following the disclosure of film director Balachandra Kumar.
The crime branch had registered a fresh case against Dileep, his brother Anoop, a relative Suraj, and two others Appu and Babu for allegedly conspiring to eliminate police officer Baiju Paulose.
The conversation allegedly took place in November 2017 at the actor’s house in Aluva in Ernakulam district, crime branch said in its first information report(FIR). They were charged under Sections 116 (abetment of offence), 118 (concealing design to commit an offence), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A leading woman actor was waylaid, kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a criminal gang in Kochi while she was returning home after a shooting assignment in 2017. Six months after the incident, Dileep was arrested in the case. Prosecution alleged that the attack was planned at the behest of Dileep to settle an old score with the woman.
Meanwhile, the actor has decided to move the apex court on Monday with a plea to conclude the trial by February-16 deadline set by the court. In the plea he said fresh charges were framed to delay the trial. The Supreme Court is also expected to take up the state government’s plea to extend the trial by six months in view of fresh disclosure.
