The survivor of the 2017 female actor abduction and sexual assault incident has re-submitted her complaint to the bar council of Kerala alleging professional misconduct on the part of actor Dileep’s lawyers.
On February 17, 2017, the survivor, a female actor who predominantly works in Malayalam and Kannada cinema, was abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of men in a car en route to Kochi from Thrissur.
Dileep is currently facing trial as the chief conspirator behind her abduction and assault. He is also under investigation for allegedly conspiring to kill the police officers involved in the assault case.
In March, the survivor had filed a complaint stating that Dileep’s lawyers had displayed illegal and unethical conduct and urged the bar council to take necessary action against them.
However, the council had rejected her complaint for not being in the proper format. The survivor was directed to re-submit it after rectifying the defects.
In the newly submitted complaint against lawyers B Raman Pillai, Philip T Varghese, and Sujesh Menon, the survivor has stated that they attempted to influence some of the witnesses in the assault case by offering money and property.
She further mentioned that a police case was registered against Pillai for influencing a witness, but he had refused to appear before the officials for questioning and had used his colleagues to stage protests in a bid to derail the investigation.
The survivor also alleged that the lawyers had aided Dileep in tampering with and destroying the data in the phones that were then submitted to the High Court as evidence in the conspiracy to murder case. She claimed that the tampered phones had had evidence on the sexual assault too.
Further, she pointed to the audio clip released by filmmaker Balachandra Kumar which linked Varghese to the bribing of a witness in the assault case. She alleged that Dileep’s lawyers had influenced about 20 witnesses in the case into turning hostile during trial.
The bar council will now seek responses from Dileep’s lawyers, which will be shared with the survivor. A decision will be taken by the council after considering the response of the lawyers and the complainant.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court, on Monday, granted conditional bail to Vijeesh, the fourth accused in the assault case. Justice P Gopinath made the ruling taking into consideration the fact that he had served five years in jail and that others accused of playing similar roles in the incident were already out on bail.
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On the other hand, on Tuesday, Pulsar Suni, the first accused in the case, who was recently denied bail by the Kerala high court, moved the Supreme Court for the same. He sought bail on the grounds that the further investigation and cross-examination of witnesses in the case could delay the trial.
It may be noted that the High Court has ordered that the investigation in the actor assault case be wrapped up by April 15.
On March 31, the court said that it would pronounce a verdict within one week on Dileep’s plea to either quash the FIR in the conspiracy to murder case or transfer it to the CBI.
For a full timeline of the female actor abduction and assault case, see here.