Hours before his anticipatory bail plea in a murder conspiracy case was to be heard at the Kerala High Court, actor Dileep, alleged to be the mastermind in the sexual assault of a Kerala actor, has moved another petition. He has claimed that Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Baiju Paulose has illegally obtained the visuals of the Kerala actor's sexual assault. Baiju Paulose is one of the five policemen Dileep is accused of plotting to kill. In the new petition, Dileep has also asked the trial court in Ernakulam for the visuals. The district magistrate is the only person legally allowed access to the visuals currently.
In the fresh case against Dileep, he and five others are accused of plotting to murder five police officials including Baiju Paulose, who were investigating the actor assault case. Baiju Paulose filed the complaint after incriminating audio clips, allegedly containing the voices of Dileep and the other accused, came out in recent weeks. Filmmaker Balachandrakumar, who spoke of working closely with Dileep, released the audio recordings to the media.
A First Information Report (FIR) was filed soon after that, with Dileep as the main accused. The accused actor approached the High Court for anticipatory bail; the High Court directed the police to examine the statement of filmmaker Balachandrakumar. The police said that they will examine the statement and that the arrest of Dileep will not happen till Tuesday when the bail plea will be heard again.
Watch: Balachandrakumar talks to TNM
It was a little before the hearing that Dileep came up with the new petition, claiming that Baiju Paulose has access to the visuals and would misuse them, and that they may reach other people.
Read: Timeline: The sexual assault case of an actor that continues to rock Kerala
This is not the first time Dileep has approached the court asking for visuals of the assault. However, Balachandrakumar has alleged that Dileep has access to the visuals already — that he has seen the visuals himself before they were produced in the court for the first time. He has witnessed the conversations between Dileep and his friends when they discussed the visuals, Balachandrakumar said. He has also observed Dileep with the main accused in the actor assault case, 'Pulsar' Suni, the director said.
Read from archive: How the accused in Malayalam actor sexual assault case have delayed justice for 2 yrs
Following the new revelations, the survivor actor put out a post on her social media page, speaking about her difficult journey from being a victim to becoming a survivor, and the support she has received through the years. Soon after her post, a huge number of artists from film industries – Malayalam and others – expressed their solidarity with the survivor.