Former home minister and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala blamed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for the lack of outcome in the case.
“Soon after the kidnap, Vijayan at a public meeting passed the judgment that there was no conspiracy,” Chennithala said, adding it has led to the case remaining unsolved for so long.
He said Vijayan’s public statement was the reason that even after so long so many versions exist about what incident, “with the truth still not coming out”.
Chennithala was responding to Malayalam superstar Dileep’s comments on Monday alleging that certain sections of the media were trying to malign his reputation by linking him to the abduction case. The star said he was prepared to undergo narco analysis and brain mapping to prove his innocence.
The Congress leader hoped that the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (Amma) would break its silence on the issue.
Amma is scheduled to hold a two-day meeting in Kochi from today. Chennithala hoped the issue would be raised at the meeting. “I feel they will certainly take up this issue at their meeting,” he said.
Amma, however, has maintained a stoic silence on the issue.
In the past few days, the case has taken several twists and turns. On Sunday the police arrested two people for blackmailing Dileep and his friend actor-director Nadir Shah.
One of the two, Vishnu, was alleged to have threatened Dileep and Shah to pay Rs15mn or else he would reveal their role in the kidnap conspiracy.
Vishnu also alleged that Dileep and Shah had been offered Rs2mn by some others in the Malayalam film industry in the kidnap case.
In another twist to the case, National Award winning actor Salim Kumar demanded that the victim-actress should undergo the narco analysis test to put all speculations to rest.
Later yesterday, Kumar apologised for his statement made on his Facebook post.
Kumar was forced to withdraw the statement after the Malayalam film actress association ‘Women in Cinema Collective’ in their Facebook post said they would deal “strongly” with anything that affected the morale of their members.
The new film body is the brainchild of hugely popular actress Manju Warrier, the former wife of Dileep, and sources say that the group would raise the issue at the Amma meeting.
Meanwhile breaking her silence for the first time since she was kidnapped earlier this year, the actress said she has full faith in the police probe.
The actress was kidnapped on February 17 while she was travelling from Thrissur to Kochi by road but later dumped near the house of director-turned-actor Lal, who upon hearing her harrowing experience, informed police.
In a written statement issued here by the actress and her family, she said she had not spoken about the incident till now on the police’s instructions.
She added that now some more people were being linked to the crime.
“I do not have any evidence to confirm or deny their role. I was saddened when I heard a remark made by an actor who said the prime accused in the case, Pulsar Suni, and I were good friends. He also mentioned that when selecting friends one must be careful. I was pained by this statement and if need be, I might even consider taking legal steps against this statement.”
