Former DGP (Prisons) R Sreelekha became the centre of controversy on Monday, 11 July, after she claimed that actor Dileep was not involved in the 2017 actor assault case at all.
In the 75th episode of her YouTube show 'Sasneham Sreelekha' on Sunday, 10 July, the retired IPS officer said that the investigation team lacks enough evidence against the actor.
"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? Shouldn't everyone know what I saw and knew as Prisons DG?" she asked in her video.
The actor-survivor in the case 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.
They had reportedly forced their way into the vehicle on the night of 17 February, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed to blackmail the actress.
There are 10 accused in the case. Dileep, the eighth one, was also arrested and sent to jail. He was released after the court granted him bail.
'Investigating Agency Forced To Arrest Dilip'
Sharing the reasons why she considered Dileep innocent, she said 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" the former officer said the investigation team was "forced to arrest Dileep" due to the pressure from the media.
Sreelekha, who was the DGP (Prisons) when Dileep was arrested, also 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.
She 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.
She 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.
'Attempt To Save the Accused'
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.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan termed the revelations shocking and asked the government to inquire into why senior police officials made such statements post retirement.
"Why was she silent all this time? Police should enquire whether this revelation was to weaken the case or not," the Congress leader told the media.
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 and said that she should have been more responsible.
"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," WCC said.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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