MLA K B Ganesh Kumar’s secretary held for threatening witness in Bekal

KOZHIKODE/KOLLAM: K B Ganesh Kumar MLA’s office secretary was arrested by Bekal police on Tuesday for allegedly threatening a key witness in the actor rape case to change his statement.
A long-time aide of actor turned-politician, Pradeep Kumar was arrested from the MLA’s residence in Manchalloor, Pathanapuram at 4.30am on Tuesday. The Kasaragod district and sessions court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea on Monday.

A police team led by Bekal circle inspector Rajesh reached Pathanapuram police station at around 1.30am before proceeding to arrest Pradeep, who was later taken in a private vehicle to Bekal.
Ganesh Kumar later announced that Pradeep has been sacked from his personal staff.
The arrest was on the basis of a complaint filed by Bekal native Vipin Lal, a key witness in the rape case, that Pradeep had threatened him to change his statements before court and police in the case in which actor Dileep is the eighth accused.
Lal also received telephone calls and letters asking him to alter his statements following which he filed a police complaint in September. Police registered a case under IPC sections 195 (A) (threatening any person to give false evidence) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Police identified Pradeep, of Kottathala, near Kottarakkara, from CCTV visuals taken from the jewellery shop in Kasaragod which he had visited to meet Lal’s uncle with his demand.
According to police, Pradeep visited Lal’s house on January 24 and on failing to meet him had gone to the jewellery shop where his uncle worked and called Lal’s mother from the uncle’s phone. Lal’s neighbour and the driver of the auto rickshaw in which he travelled identified Pradeep. Cops also got hold of copies of an identity card that Pradeep had produced while for renting a hotel room there.
Police interrogated Pradeep last week and found he met Dileep twice when the actor was behind bars. He had accompanied Ganesh Kumar during one such visit.
Police also found that the SIM card from which a call was made belonged to a Tiruvelveli native but the tower location of the phone was traced to Pathanapuram. Police also need to ascertain whether Pradeep had taken part in a meeting held at a hotel in Kochi in January, purportedly to hatch a plan to force witnesses in the case to alter their statements.
Meanwhile, Lal told reporters on Tuesday that the police investigation must not be limited to Pradeep but should uncover the people on whose behalf he was acting.
Lal was an accused in the case who later turned approver. He was a former jail mate of key accused ‘Pulsar’ Suni at the district jail in Kakkanad and had written a letter on behalf of Suni to Dileep making enquiries about the 'quotation amount’.