The nervousness was palpable in the courtroom as the fate of the bail application of Malayalam actor Dileep, aka Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan Pillai, was awaited in the Aluva trial court. Judge Honey M Verghese who was hearing the case dismissed the prosecution’s petition seeking the cancellation of the actor’s bail.
“We will certainly appeal in the high court. We maintain that Dileep has not only been influencing the witnesses and trying to turn them hostile, he is also tampering with evidence and more importantly the evidence we have now of trying to endanger the lives of police officials, “said public prosecutor KB Sunil Kumar exclusively to News18.com.
Dileep has been named an accused in a sensational case of alleged sexual assault of an actress in 2017.
The matter was heard after the prosecution sought the cancellation of his bail alleging that the actor had influenced witnesses and destroyed evidence in the case. Dileep’s bail plea was rejected several times but finally granted in October 2017.
From being a mimicry artiste to becoming a top-rung superstar in Malayalam cinema, Dileep today is an extremely popular actor and a successful businessman as well. Affectionately known as “Janapriya Nayakan,” or the people’s most-loved hero, Dileep soon became a villain for the media and the groups who alleged that he misused his power in this case. Such has been the clout of Dileep that it is alleged that many actresses who supported the survivor lost work in the industry. The survivor herself has not worked in a film since the alleged attack.
The Dileep case as it is called is nothing short of the script of a complex potboiler that also exposed the underbelly of the film industry marred by sexism and money power. If that was not enough, the case has seen several twists with the main accused Pulsar Suni mysteriously surrendering and then singing like a canary to the police interrogation being conducted under secrecy, some audio clips being leaked, and then some courtroom drama.
Dileep is the eighth accused in the case of alleged sexual assault of a Malayali actress on the night of February 17, 2017, for two hours in a moving car. The survivor in her statement said she was abducted by five men and sexually assaulted, and the horrific act was also allegedly filmed. A plea filed by the prosecution in May this year states that crucial information has been uncovered where digital data on Dileep’s brother’s phone has been found. According to the prosecution, the police have recovered photographs “in which the second-by-second commentary of the visuals of the sexual assault on the survivor is described”.
Dileep allegedly was the mastermind behind the attack. He was married to another popular Malayali actress, Manju Warrier, from 1998 to 2015. Manju quit acting after the wedding despite her flourishing career. It has been reported that the survivor who was a close friend of Manju told her about Dileep’s affair with another actress, Kavya Madhavan. Dileep and Kavya married in 2016. According to reports, the assault was an attempt to settle scores and the attack was recorded to blackmail the victim later.
Dileep was also later accused of conspiring to kill police officers who were investigating the case. He served time (85 days) in Kerala’s Aluva sub-jail in July 2017 after his arrest. The survivor identified Pulsar Suni, the main accused in the case, as one of the assaulters. Later, a letter written by Suni allegedly to Dileep began doing the rounds and that’s when the actor’s name surfaced for the first time. Police records and court statements show that in the case that has gone on for five years there have been attempts to slander and silence the survivor who has received strong support from several top members of the film community.
In January this year, the survivor revealed her identity for the first time and issued a strong statement on her Instagram page, stating that there had been repeated attempts to humiliate, silence, and isolate her.
Shortly after the attack, women in the Malayalam film industry formed the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), a platform to advocate for better working conditions, and safeguard workers, especially with regard to sexual crimes. The collective includes women from all areas of the film industry: make-up artists, dance artistes, technicians, and actors.
This particular bail hearing was based on the petition filed by the prosecution after Dileep was accused of allegedly “conspiring an attack on the investigating officers”. The evidence for this is based on the statement made by a prominent filmmaker, Balachandra Kumar, who was a former friend of the actor.
Kumar claimed that Dileep was in possession of the assault visuals even before they were produced in court. He also released audio clips that allegedly had male voices discussing an attack on the police and the mention of a “VIP” who helped Dileep in the case. In between all this, on January 4, Dileep is said to have written to the DGP of Kerala, seeking a stop to the probe. However, a few days later on January 9, the police filed a fresh FIR against Dileep based on Kumar’s audio clips.
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