Big blow for Dileep, further investigation report will remain, says court, breather for crime branch

KOCHI: A big blow for actor Dileep in the case of assaulting the actress. The Ernakulam Judicial Magistrate Court rejected the plea filed by Dileep, the eighth accused in the case and co-accused Sarath, demanding to dismiss the further investigation report. The court assessed that the charges in the report will remain. The court asked the accused to appear on October 31 to hear the charge sheet read. Sessions judge Honey M Varghese pronounced the verdict.

Dileep claimed that nothing new was found in the investigation conducted by the crime branch based on the statement of director Balachandra Kumar. He also demanded that the further investigation report be rejected and the trial be completed as early as possible. In the first charge sheet, charges including rape was imposed on Dileep. After further investigation, one more charge was filed against Dileep. The new offence was charged for deleting the information from the phone, which the high court directed to produce. The prosecution claimed that Dileep destroyed the evidence from the phones at the lab in Mumbai with the help of a private hacker.

Dileep's friend Sarath was charged for concealing the visuals of the actress attacked. Only Sarath was arrested after further investigation. Balachandra Kumar has stated that it was Sarath who brought the attack scenes of the actress on an iPad to Dileep's house in Aluva and had also invited him to watch it. 112 witness statements and more than 300 supporting evidences were given to the court as part of the further investigation report.

The crime branch has got a big relief with the court verdict in the actress attack case. The argument of the defense was that there was nothing in the further investigation report and that it was a fake story created by the crime branch. Dileep argued in the court that the crime branch came up with a fake story when was about to lose the case. This has now been rejected by the court.