A court in Angamaly near Kochi on Wednesday left Malayalam superstar Dileep, arrested on Monday for the alleged conspiracy behind the abduction and assault of a frontline actress in February, in the custody of the police for two days as the special team probing the case was reportedly planning to question M Mukesh, CPI(M)’s legislator from Kollam and a leading film actor. However, Mukesh said he had no information on such a police move.
The police’s plan to question the Marxist MlA, who has come under fire from Opposition parties for the supporting Dileep till the other day, was based on the fact that Sunil Kumar alias Pulsar Suni, leader of the gang that had abducted and assaulted the actress allegedly as per a Rs 1.5-crore ‘quotation’ from Dileep, had been his driver for over one-and-a-half years.
There were allegations that it was Mukesh who had introduced Suni, first accused in the case, to Dileep but the actor rejected the charge. Asked whether he had received the police’s notice asking him to appear for questioning, Mukesh told newsmen in Kollam on Wednesday, “NoticeIJ Please don’t scare me. I haven’t received anything. I don’t know anything.”
It is said that Suni had reached the venue of a stage show organised by the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) as Mukesh’s driver in 2013 during the rehearsal of which Dileep and Suni had allegedly entered into the conspiracy for the first time at a hotel in Kochi to abduct and assault the actress.
Mukesh has already explained that he had no idea about the criminal background of Suni when he was his driver. He said he had sacked Suni from the job not because he had received any information regarding his criminal background but because of his habit of driving the car always at breakneck speed.
After the Judicial Magistrate Court at Angamaly left Dileep in their custody, the probe team began evidence collection exercise by taking him to Thodupuzha in Idukki district, one of the places where the conspiracy had allegedly taken place. However, the police were unable to complete the task there due to intense people’s protest against the actor.
The court also deferred the decision on the bail application moved by Dileep till the completion of the period of the superstar’s police custody on Friday morning. In the bail plea, Dileep argued that the police had trapped him in the case using fabricated evidences and that he was arrested in violation of all the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.
Dramatic scenes were witnessed outside the court when Dileep, named as 11th accused in the case, was brought there on Wednesday morning as the people who had gathered there, majority of whom were his fans till the other day, booed him and shouted slogans against him. His brother Anoop and lawyer K Ramkumar also faced similar protests from the crowd.
Arrested on Monday evening, Dileep was shifted to the Sub-Jail in Aluva, his hometown near Kochi, on Tuesday after the Angamaly Magistrate remanded him in 14-day judicial custody. The police, who in their remand report had cited 19 “strong and irrefutable” evidences against Dileep, have slapped ten grave charges including criminal conspiracy, gang rape and kidnapping on him.
The actress was abducted and assaulted by a gang headed by Suni on the night of February 17 inside a moving car in which she was travelling to Kochi from Thrissur in connection with the work on a film. In the car, Suni had allegedly attacked and abused the actress and recorded her video images in the awkward situation. They set her free near Kochi early next morning.
Meanwhile, the police have started examining Dileep’s alleged real estate deals inside and outside Kerala to see if there were any business connections among him, his former wife and actress Manju Warrier and the assaulted actress in the context of the allegation that business deals had been one of the reasons behind the attack.a