Malayalam actor Dileep’s bail plea has been rejected by the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate court, on grounds of possible evidence tampering and witness intimidation. He will continue to remain in judicial custody. The prosecution also argued that the actor’s non-cooperation with the investigation was also not helping the case. The defence’s argument was weak – they accused the police of hatching a huge conspiracy to malign the Malayalam superstar’s name. The prime accused of the case, Pulsar Soni, is Dileep’s designated driver and has a criminal record. It is not clear if Dileep was aware of this.
The charges against Dileep are serious enough. On February 17, Pulsar and some of his men kidnapped a popular Kerala actress and sexually assaulted her in a car. The goons also took pictures and videos to blackmail the actress. Pulsar has since revealed that the assault was carried out at the behest of Dileep who is said to have had some past beef with the actress. Dileep, of course, has denied this but there is a letter written by Suni and a selfie of him with the actor on the sets of the film Pooram that both contradict Dileep and seem to show a close relationship between them. The rumours are that Pulsar was Dileep’s muscle and Dileep used him to intimate rivals and people had grudges with. There has been talk of Dileep’s wayward ways for a long time, and revelations of the sexual assault against the actress has brought years of allegations and heresy to the fore.
Police have stated that the critical piece of evidence in the case – the phone that was used to record the assault on the actress – is still with Dileep and that is one of the reasons they do not want him given bail. The police have also revealed that Suni handed over the phone to Dileep through his lawyer Pratheesh Chacko, and now the police want to bring in Pratheesh for questioning.
