Police file additional charge-sheet in actress assault case, Kavya not named accused

The Kerala police team probing the 2017 actress sexual assault case has submitted its additional charge-sheet in the case, the prosecution informed the trial court on Friday.

The investigation report has been submitted to the sessions court concerned and it will be handed over to the trial court following due procedures.

Actor Dileep has been slapped with an additional charge of tampering with evidence in the charge-sheet. His friend Sarath has been arraigned as an accused also. Dileep is the eighth accused in the case and he is out on bail after being arrested and remanded for allegedly plotting the crime.

The crime branch team, in its additional charge-sheet, says that Dileep had watched the visuals of the assault on the survivor-actress and destroyed evidence.

Dileep's wife and actor Kavya Madhavan has not been named as an accused in the fresh document. She has been, however, included as a witness. Though the police had accused the lawyers for the accused of destroying evidence, they have also not been named as either accused or witnesses.

The trial court said it would consider the case on July 27 after the informattion in the additional charge-sheet are incorporated in the first charge-sheet.

The additional charge-sheet has added a few more witnesses in the case. They include Dileep's former wife and actor Manju Warrier and director BalachandraKumar who made a series of charges against Dileep, leading to the registration of a fresh FIR and further investigation. Cyber expert Sai Shankar, prime accused Pulsar Suni's mother and a domestic help of Dileep have also been named as accused.

The Kerala High Court on Monday refused to extend time granted for the Crime Branch to complete the investigation into the conspiracy case related to the 2017 actress assault case.

Justice Kauser Edappagath dismissed the petition of the Crime Branch seeking time to conclude the investigation in the related conspiracy case and directed it to file the additional charge sheet by July 22.

The court had on June 3 granted the Crime Branch time till July 15 to conclude the probe and file the additional charge sheet.

The prosecution had sought more time to investigate the evidence from actor Dileep's mobile phone and to question more witnesses in the matter.

On January 9, the Crime Branch had registered the case on a complaint filed by an investigating officer based on a purported audio clip of Dileep, which was telecast by a TV channel, in which the actor was allegedly heard conspiring to attack the official.

The actor and five others were booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 116 (abetment), 118 (concealing design to commit offence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (criminal act done by several people).

The high court had granted bail to Dileep in the conspiracy case.

The actress-survivor, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some persons 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 those persons to blackmail the actress.

There are 10 accused in the 2017 case, including actor Dileep, and police have arrested seven. Dileep was arrested subsequently and released on bail.