PALAKKAD: The Ottappalam police will file a chargesheet against actor Sreejith Ravi in the case registered against him for misbehaving with schoolgirls. Investigating officer and Ottappalam SI Adam Khan said on Friday that an application for recording the 164 statement of the girls and witnesses in the case will be submitted to the court as per the Criminal Procedure Code and that the statement will be recorded within a few days.
The parents of the girls and school authorities at Pathiripala in Ottappalam said that the police had failed to conduct a proper inquiry at first. The school principal told DC that the incident occurred on the road near the school on August 27 and a complaint was filed the same day. But the investigation gained momentum only on August 30 after the parents approached Palakkad SP A. Srinivasan and the district collector with the complaint. According to the police, there was a confusion regarding the vehicle number which led to the delay in the inquiry.
Mr Srinivasan, SP, said that he had received a complaint from the parents over the slow progress of investigation. Legal experts said that as the case was registered invoking sections of POCSO Act, the trial needed to be completed in a year and if the victims identify the accused during the secret trial, the actor could get not less than three years in jail. Sreejith told the police that the schoolgirls had mistaken him for someone else and hence had not mentioned his name in the complaint.
