In what could be a breakthrough in the actor attack case in Kerala, the police have identified a person who was involved in the alleged conspiracy plotted by Dileep to eliminate the investigation officer.
The person, referred to as the VIP friend of Dileep in media reports, has been identified as an NRI businessman. Manorama News reported that he is suspected to be a native of Kottayam. The police have not confirmed this.
The police identified the person with the help of Balachandrakumar, filmmaker and former friend of Dileep, whose recent revelations against the actor have led to slapping of fresh charges against him.
Though the police tried to contact the person, his phone has been switched off, Manorama News reported.
Balachandrakumar had recently revealed that Dileep had watched the visuals of the assault on the actress at his home in Aluva on November 15, 2017. He said the visuals were brought by a VIP friend of the actor.
According to his statement, a kid who was there at the time had told Dileep that 'Sharath uncle has come' while Dileep's wife actor Kavya Madhavan called him 'ikka'. Balachandrakumar also told the police that the VIP had a flight journey scheduled for the day after he visited Dileep.
The police zeroed in on to the businessman after examining details of the flight journey also, sources said.
Balachandrakumar on Saturday told Manorama News that police showed him six photographs and he expressed doubt that one of them was of the VIP whom he met at Dileep's house.
"I met that person only once. He was wearing khadi then. He was a close friend of Dileep. I have requested the police to get his voice sample and cross check it with the recordings of his conversation with Dileep," he said.
The police recently registered a fresh case against Dileep on charges of conspiring to eliminate the officers who investigated the 2017 actress sexual assault case in which he is the eighth accused. Dileep is accused of hiring a set of criminals, including prime accused Pulsar Suni, to assault the actress and record the visuals of it in an act of vengeance.
Balachandrakumar had claimed discussions regarding the conspiracy to attack the investigating officers were held at many places.
Kumar had recently made some startling revelations against Dileep in the actress assault case through the media. He has also claimed that there is evidence including digital ones to prove that Dileep had influenced the witnesses.
The crime branch registered the new case on a complaint filed by an investigating officer based on a purported audio clip of Dileep which was released by a TV channel recently in which the actor was heard conspiring to attack the officials.
The victim -- who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films -- was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress.
There were 10 accused in the case and initially, police arrested seven people. Dileep was arrested subsequently and let out on bail later.
