Malayalam actor Dileep has been named the eighth accused in the chargesheet in the February 17 actress attack case that was submitted before the court on Wednesday. Manju Warrier will be one of the witnesses, reports claimed. The charge sheet was submitted Wednesday afternoon at the Angamaly court by the probe team. The probe team has listed eight reasons that prompted Dileep to commit the crime. Dileep wanted to wreak vengeance after his first marriage with Manju Warrier ended in a divorce. He presumed that the actress had a role in the marital discord and conspired to attack her, the chargesheet said.
The subsidiary chargesheet has 14 accused, including Dileep, 385 witnesses and 33 confidential statements. More than 50 witnesses are from the cineworld. Only Dileep and prime accused Pulsar Suni are accused of conspiring the heinous crime in the charge sheet, according to sources.
Anish, a cop from whose phone Pulsar Suni had called Dileep, and Vipinlal, who wrote a letter to Dileep, has turned approvers, according to reporters. The probe team had submitted the first charge sheet in the case on April 18 that named Pulsar Suni as the main accused. The names of the first seven accused are same as the ones on the initial charge sheet—Pulsar Suni, Vijeesh, Manikandan, Vadival Saleem, Martin, Pradeep and Charlie—the criminals who were directly involved in the case and who tried to help the accused.
Apart from the seven, the subsidiary charge sheet names Dileep, Meshtiri Suni, lawyers Pratheesh Chacko and Raju Joseph, and Suni's jail-mate Vishnu. The names of the other two accused were not immediately known. The first eight are accused of gang rape and conspiracy charges have been slapped on accused no. 8 to 12. The probe team had initially planned to name Dileep as the first accused. However, legal advisors said that such a move, without ample evidence, may backfire and prove to be a setback for the case.
Dileep was arrested on July 10 for plotting the sensational crime. The Kerala High Court granted him bail on October 3, but imposed stringent conditions and said he should not tamper with evidence. The Kerala HC had Tuesday granted him permission to travel to Dubai for business purposes.
