A former head of the Kerala prisons department has claimed that Malayalam actor Dileep was not involved in the kidnap and sexual assault of an actress and accused police of fabricating evidence against him.

R. Sreelekha, who retired as director-general of police (fire and rescue) in December 2020, also accused the police of forcing an undertrial in a cheating case to write a letter posing as the prime accused, Sunil Kumar alias Pulsar Suni, to Dileep seeking a miniscule part of the promised money for the contract job he carried out.

Dileep, who spent 85 days in judicial remand, is the eighth accused in the case and charged with plotting the incident to settle scores.

Sreelekha said security cameras at the district jail in Ernakulam where the accused were lodged had clearly shown a policeman passing on a mobile phone to Suni when the latter was brought back after being presented before the court. He allegedly used to make calls to filmmaker and Dileep’s friend Nadir Shah and the actor’s personal aide Appunni.

Sreelakha, who was the ADG (prisons) when Suni and his accomplices were arrested for allegedly kidnapping the actress and sexually assaulting her in a moving car in February 2017, made the claims on her YouTube channel on Sunday.

“I believe one hundred per cent that Dileep is not involved in this case. I don’t believe that he has any role, knowingly or unknowingly, in this case,” Sreelekha said, days before the trial is scheduled to end on July 15.

She added: “I am not saying all this to influence the case or anyone, or I am under the influence of someone, or by taking any money to save someone.”

Pre-empting questions on the timing, she said: “A government servant has no right to reveal such things. We are all bound by conduct rules.”

Although Sreelekha was not part of the investigation, she recalled discussing the matter with officers who handled the case.

“I was shown a picture of Dileep with Pulsar Suni at a shooting location. Dileep was with someone else and Suni was somewhere in the background. When an officer showed me that picture, I jokingly asked him wasn’t that a photoshopped image? A senior officer who was also present there agreed and said they needed such evidence,” she claimed.

Sreelekha said she had written to the DGP seeking an inquiry into Suni purportedly using a phone in jail. “But I never got a response in spite of reminders,” she said, adding that the policeman who may have helped Suni acquire the phone was never questioned.

Sreelekha also mentioned the letter Suni allegedly got his cellmate Vipinlal to write seeking Rs 300 from Dileep from the Rs 1.5 crore promised to carry out the crime. “It is ridiculous that a person who entered into a contract for Rs 1.5 crore sought Rs 300 by money order three months after landing in jail,” she said.

Didi Damodaran, a filmmaker who is part of the Women in Cinema Collective that took shape after the kidnap and assault case, described Sreelekha as Dileep’s mouthpiece. “We don’t need to say whose mouthpiece she is working as. It is very clear. How can a woman take such an anti-woman position? Not only as a woman, but the position she once held. Whatever she has said is very alarming.”