Dileep moves Supreme Court, seeks visuals of attack on female actor

Prominent actor Dileep who is the eighth accused in the 2017 Malayalam actor abduction and assault case has now moved the Supreme Court seeking access to the visuals of assault that was allegedly captured by main accused Pulsar Suni.

In his plea, Dileep states that he has a right to get evidence relating to the case which included the memory card in which the attack visuals have been stored. The actor in his plea, also stated that the visuals have been doctored to deliberately trap him and he needs to access them to prove his innocence.

The actor will be represented by senior lawyer and former attorney general Mukul Rohtagi in the Supreme Court. On Monday, Justices AN Khanwilkar and Hemant Gupta will hear the plea. 

Following his arrest in connection with the case on July 10, 2017 and subsequent bail which he got only 85 days later, Dileep first attempted to gain access to all evidences in the case, including the attack visuals, by moving the Angamaly Magistrate Court. The court, while granting permission to access records to him denied access to the visuals.

Dileep approached the HC earlier this year, after the Angamaly Magistrate court dismissed his petition seeking visuals of the assault. The court did not entertain his plea for custody of assault visuals, but directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to hand over CCTV footage of the woman actor's car being driven from Thrissur to Kochi, when the crime happened.

Earlier hearing Dileep's petition, the HC had asked him why he wanted to access the assault visuals. Dileep had then claimed that he had the right to access all the evidence in the case. While Dileep's lawyer was shown the visuals as mandated by law, Dileep proceeded to file petition seeking custody of the visual.

The prominent actor is accused of allegedly conspiring to attack the woman actor and of hiring prime accused Pulsar Suni and other accused to carry out the crime. The woman actor was attacked on February 17, 2017, while she was traveling in her car from her home in Thrissur to Kochi. Her assaulters detained her for over 2 hours and took pictures and visuals of the attack following which she was dropped to a director’s house nearby. She filed a complaint with the police on the very same day.