South Central

South Central 52: The Dileep case and how SIR is unfolding across states

By The News Minute

November 30, 2025 at 10:00 AM

In this episode of South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna first discuss the Kerala actor assault case of 2017, which superstar Dileep is accused of orchestrating. As the verdict is expected in a week, the hosts take us through the details of the case and its impact on Kerala society. They are joined by TNM’s Associate Editor, Sukanya Shaji and Breaking News Head, Azeefa Fathima.

Dhanya begins the discussion by recalling the incident that occurred in February 2017. “The moot point here is that a group of five men kidnap her and sexually assault her. But it was evident that this was not a crime of passion; it was planned,” she says.

Sukanya details what transpired on the night of the assault. “Our colleague Nidhi spoke to Manikandan, who was in the car when the assault happened,” she says.

Dhanya says that initially, Dileep was not even a person of interest. But he himself gave interviews in which he appeared aggressive after rumours about him thickened.

“A relative of the survivor first told the police that Dileep had a grudge against her. Then, a letter by Suni surfaced, addressed to Dileep, saying he would be loyal to him,” Dhanya adds.

Detailing the conspiracy angle, Azeefa says that Dileep’s ex-wife Manju Warrier told the police that he was seeing Kavya Madhavan, another actor, while being married to Manju. “She told the police that the survivor informed her about Dileep’s affair, which was the possible motive behind the crime.”

Dhanya says that when so many witnesses turned hostile, it seemed the case would collapse. “At this point, a man named Balachandra Kumar came forward. He said that Dileep had a copy of the visuals of the sexual assault, and that Dileep was acquainted with Suni,” she adds.

Azeefa explains how the memory card of the visuals was tampered with while in the court’s custody. “This is when the SIT figures that the hash value of the card has changed. The survivor went to court asking for a probe into this as well, and this report about the hash value changing was not released for two years,” she says.

Dhanya underlines that it is a grave situation when visuals of sexual assault, in the safe custody of the court, are tampered with. “This card was accessed thrice by unauthorised persons, and till today, no probe has been initiated. The survivor’s worst nightmare is what if the visuals leak online at some point,” she says.

Sukanya says it is also important to note that while the survivor was being hailed as a change-maker and a trailblazer, the system was also failing her terribly. “She saw friends changing colours, the system showing its claws, and the court subjecting her to invasive questions. This dichotomy also makes it very clear how problematic our gender conscience is as a society,” she adds.

Dhanya and Pooja wrap up the conversation by recalling that this is not just a case of interest because of the celebrities involved, but also because it mirrors Kerala society’s power nexus and gender bias.

In the second session, the hosts delve into the SIR, the pressure exerted on BLOS, and the discrepancies in the process itself. The guests are joined by TNM’s Tamil Nadu Bureau Chief Shabbir Ahmed.

Shabbir explains how the SIR process itself has been chaotic and confusing. “The one thing we have been seeing is confusion in giving instructions and filling out these forms. The BLOs also appear confused about how to guide people. The ECI has not given crucial information about how to find the names of voters from the last SIR list,” he says.

He adds that BLOs were given over 1000 voters each, with very little training on the process. “The BLOs are racing against time, but collecting forms back and putting them in order is becoming difficult. Most BLOs have also not received all the forms because people may have moved from their previous homes or died. People have no idea where to find their names,” he says.

Dhanya says that the larger question is why nobody is contesting the breakneck speed of cleaning up India’s voter rolls.

“Why do it just before elections? Every voter needs to be re-evaluated, which makes the process long. In Tamil Nadu alone, multiple versions of forms need to be printed and updated for over 6.5 crore voters. The digital divide also worsens the pressure on the BLOs. This will result in people being left out or ghost voters continuing on rolls,” Pooja says.

She also says that political parties like the DMK should not be so closely involved in this process because it makes the rolls vulnerable to manipulation.

“The onus to be on the voter list is now on voters, not the ECI, to stay on the rolls,” Dhanya reminds.

Shabbir says that most BLOs are women, and they start their days very early and do additional fieldwork to complete this process. “BLOs in rural areas do not have proper phones or internet and connectivity. All of this is being ignored by the ECI. In 2002 and 2004, this process took 3 years, but now the expectation is to wrap it up in 30 days. This is unrealistic, and it will lead to some kind of exclusion,” Shabbir adds.

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Audio Timecodes

00:00:00- Introduction

00:01:11 - 26% Discount