| Actress assault case: Manju’s statement will be crucial in identifying Dileep’s voice

Kochi: Manju Warrier is being re-examined in the actress attack case to identify Dileep’s voice. Manju, who is the 34th witness in the case, will be examined on the 16th of this month.

Manju Warrier had been interrogated earlier. Manju had not defected then. He stood with the victim. Many other filmmakers had given statements in court. Therefore, Manju’s statement is still crucial.

The prosecution is investigating again to identify the owners of the audio recorded by director Balachandra Kumar. Balachandra Kumar claims that he is the voice of Dileep, his sister’s husband Suraj, his brother Anoop and his friend Sarath. All of them are acquaintances of Manju. Therefore, the prosecution reckons that Manju’s statement will be decisive. The re-examination is conducted on the basis of the further investigation report. Out of 125 witnesses, the examination of thirty people has been completed. Balachandrakumar’s trial is going on now.

The crime branch has newly charged Dileep with the charge of destroying evidence and trying to conceal evidence against Sarat. The prosecution claims that Sarath, the 15th accused, brought the footage of the attack on the actress to the home of the eighth accused, Dileep. After bringing the footage home, it was destroyed under Sarath’s leadership. There is evidence that Dileep and the lawyer watched the footage several times. There is also evidence that the lawyer said in a phone conversation with Dileep that he had seen the footage.

Dileep spoke to the lawyer from his brother-in-law Suraj’s phone. Disregarding the High Court order to produce these phones for testing, Dileep sent them to forensic experts in Mumbai. The prosecution also pointed out that he tried to erase the information using a hacker.

Director Balachandra Kumar was there when Sarath brought the footage of the actress being attacked on an iPad and brought it to Dileep’s house. There are WhatsApp messages and digital evidence to corroborate this.

Apart from the defectors, hacker Sai Shankar and Pulsar Suni’s mother will also be interrogated. The investigating team had pointed out in the charge sheet that they defected due to the influence of the opposition party. Kavya Madhavan’s name is also in the witness list, but no decision has been taken on re-examination.