Dileep arrest: How the 'big shark' fell into the police net

Putting an end to weeks of uncertainty, the Kerala police arrested Malayalam actor Dileep in connection with the Kochi actress attack case on Monday evening.

In a news that has come as a shock to Kerala and the entire film industry, the probe team registered the arrest on Dileep around 7 pm on Monday. The actor will be produced before the court later tonight and will then be shifted to the sub-jail. Dileep is expected to spend the next two weeks in jail, according to legal experts.

Actress attack: Malayalam actor Dileep arrested

The arrest came after Dileep was questioned for an entire day in a decisive development in what has been a cinema-style thriller. Dileep was taken in by the police on Monday morning, nearly four months after the young actress was kidnapped and assaulted by some goons, led by Pulsar Suni, in a moving car in Kochi on February 17. The development also came a fortnight after a 13-hour marathon grilling of Dileep and director Nadirshah at the Aluva police club on June 28. Nadirshah has also been taken into custody now.

The finger of suspicion fell on Dileep after he lied to the probe team several times during the interrogation. While the news of the attack on the actress was all over the news the same night, Dileep told the police he got to know about it only on the next day, that too around afternoon. After going through the actor's phone records, the probe team found that he had refused to answer several calls to his phone on the night of the incident. 

What proved crucial was a call that an industry friend made to Dileep the next day to convey the news. It lasted only 12 seconds. Think about it. Dileep, when he was informed that a fellow Mollywood actress - who had shared the screen space with him in multiple films - was attacked and harassed for hours by a bunch of goons, ended the call in a few seconds. It was enough for the probe team to figure out that he knew what was going to happen to the actress that day.

The actor reportedly held a personal grudge against the actress for some time now. It is understood that the conspiracy - to attack her and shoot the visuals to blackmail her - was hatched in a hotel on MG Road in Kochi a year ago.

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Suni, the prime accused, said that he knew Dileep for several years, and the actor gave the quotation to attack the actress last year. When mediapersons confronted Suni, he had said that some big sharks are involved in the case. Dileep, on the other hand, kept denying that he knew Suni even when selfies of Dileep featuring Suni on his shooting sets surfaced.

Kudos to the probe team for their effort in the case so far. Despite the case involving top celebrities and all eyes being on them, they kept going. With all the media scrutiny and the pressure on them throughout, they have delivered.

Dileep, who thought that he plotted things so well, might have been confident that he could have handled the Kerala police like he has done in many of his films. But now he will have to cool his heels in jail for the next couple of weeks. Let's see how things progress afterwards.

• Dileep
• Kochi actress attack
• Pulsar Suni