Crime branch interrogates Dileep’s wife Kavya Madhavan

A team of crime branch officials reached Madhavan’s residence near Kochi in Kerala after she refused to turn up before them, officers said.

Kochi: The crime branch of Kerala Police on Monday began interrogating Malayalam actor Kavya Madhavan in connection with the actor assault case in which Madhavan’s husband and actor Dileep is one of the accused, the police said.

A team of crime branch officials reached Madhavan’s residence in Aluva near Kochi on Monday after she refused to turn up before the probe team, officers said, adding that she is currently being questioned at her residence. A month ago, the police had served a notice to the actor to appear for interrogation.

The police action stemmed from the leakage of an audio clip of a conversation, purportedly between Dileep’s brother-in-law T N Sooraj and their family friend Sarath, in which Sooraj was heard saying that Dileep had no role in the incident but it was executed at the behest of Madhavan, who had a grudge towards the survivor.

In the audio clip, Sooraj was heard saying that earlier Madhavan used to be close to the survivor in the case. Sooraj also pointed out, in the audio clip, that the prime accused Sunil Kumar alias Pulsar Suni had gone to Madhavan’s boutique after the assault.

The crime branch had recovered the audio clips from the mobile phones of Sooraj as part of the probe into another case pertaining to an alleged conspiracy to annihilate police officials who had investigated the assault case, officers said. Earlier this year, the crime branch had registered a case against Dileep, his brother Anoop, brother-in-law Sooraj and two of their friends following the revelation of director Balachandra Kumar that Dileep had conspired to target the officials. Subsequently, the police had seized digital devices used by Dileep and others.

Earlier, the police had claimed that Dileep had a grudge towards the survivor in the assault case after she allegedly revealed his affair with Madhavan to his first wife Manju Warrier. Dileep had legally separated from Warrier before marrying Madhavan