Actress Assault Case: Former Kerala DGP R Sreelekha Says Dileep Is Not Involved In The Case

Former DGP (Prisons) R Sreelekha stirred up a controversy on Monday as she alleged that the investigation team in the actor assault case of 2017 lacks enough evidence against actor Dileep. Sreelekha, who had retired as Director General of Police (Prisons), made many revelations through her YouTube channel which many, including Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, had termed as shocking.

In the 75th episode of her 'Sasneham Sreelekha' programme through her YouTube channel, the retired police officer said she was sharing the reasons why she considered Malayalam actor Dileep as innocent in the crime case he was accused of.

She also alleged that the picture of Pulsar Suni, the prime accused and actor Dileep in the case was a photoshopped one. "A senior police officer once told me that the photo of Dileep and Suni was a photoshopped one," she said in the video which was uploaded on her YouTube channel on Sunday night.

Blaming the media for "hiding facts" related to the actor assault case, the former officer said the investigation team was forced to arrest Dileep due to the pressure from the media. "I believe that Dileep is not involved in this case. I do not believe that he had any role in this case at all. Including his family, his second child was born into such a situation and now she is five and do you think she got any peace? I feel bad about thinking about all these. Shouldn't everyone know what I saw and knew as Prisons DG," she asked in her video.

Sreelekha, who was the DGP (Prisons) when Dileep was arrested, expressed disbelief that one of the accused had written a letter to the actor from jail suggesting that he had done the offence at his behest. The retired IPS officer also claimed that many other actors have told her about Suni, who had earned their trust and later abducted them and sexually assaulted them and took pictures on the mobile phone camera.

"If many prosecution witnesses turn hostile during trial, it shows the police wrote their statements falsely. Anyhow, now when this case was about to get concluded in 2022 and many convicts were about to get convicted, except Dileep as there was not much evidence against him, suddenly another case came up," she said.

Sreelekha was referring to the conspiracy case which was registered against Dileep and others based on the statement of movie director Balachandra Kumar for conspiring to attack the investigation officers in the 2017 case. Meanwhile, Satheesan said the revelations were shocking and asked the government to probe into why senior police officials make such statements after their retirement.

"The government should look into the circumstances under which a retired police officer is talking like this. There is an impropriety in such matters. A retired DGP has made such revelations. It's shocking. Why was she silent all this time? We don't know the truth. We want the truth to come out. Police should enquire whether this revelation was to weaken the case or not," the Congress leader told the media.

Lawyer of the survivor, T B Mini, said the video of the former DGP was an attempt to whitewash the accused. "This seems like a last attempt to save the accused. The video of the former DGP seems like part of a conspiracy to save him," Mini told the television channels.

Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), a collective of women in cinema working in the Malayalam film industry, demanded the intervention of the Chief Minister into the revelations of the former DGP. "Keralites know for sure that for whom she is speaking for. Police behaving like mafia and creating evidence using Photoshop will destroy the morale of the people. The chief minister should react to such allegations. She should have been more responsible," WCC said.

The actress-victim who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress.

There are 10 accused in the case. Dileep, the eight accused in the case, was also arrested and sent to jail. He was released after the court granted him bail.