Following his acquittal on Monday, Dileep said the 2017 actor assault case against him was the result of a conspiracy. “First of all, I thank Almighty God. Truth has prevailed,” Dileep told reporters after the verdict. “In this case, I began to be targeted after Manju (Warrier) [actor and Dileep's ex-wife] alleged that there was a criminal conspiracy and called for it to be investigated. It was then that a conspiracy was formed against me,” he said.
Dileep alleged that the investigation itself had been compromised. “A high-ranking woman officer and a group of criminal police officers chosen by her pursued this conspiracy. The main suspect and others were arrested while they were in custody, and based on that, this police team fabricated a false narrative along with those accused,” he claimed. Dileep further said that this version of events was deliberately pushed into the public domain. “This police group involved sections of the media and some of their associates and circulated this false story widely through social media,” he said. Referring to the verdict, he added, “Today, the version of events presented by this police team before the court has been rejected.”
“In this case, the real conspiracy was to frame me,” Dileep said. “My career, my public image and my personal life were destroyed as a result.” Thanking those who stood by him, he said, “I would like to thank my relatives, my friends and their families, and the millions of people who prayed for me during these past nine years. I thank them all wholeheartedly.” He also expressed gratitude to his legal team, saying, “I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my lawyers, who stood by me and defended me throughout these nine years.”
The Ernakulam Principal District and Sessions Court on Monday acquitted Dileep in the 2017 case relating to the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent woman actor, while convicting six other accused, including the prime accused Sunil N S alias Pulsar Suni. The offences relate to an incident on February 17, 2017, when the actor was abducted while travelling to a film shoot and sexually assaulted in a moving car. The court is set to pronounce sentences on December 12.
