Abduction case: Congress legislator who came to aid of actress claims vehicle tampered with

Congress legislator PT Thomas, who had been the first to rush to the aid of the abducted Malayalam film actress, on Monday complained to police that his vehicle was tampered with to cause him harm and sought a probe into it.

In a related matter, superstar Dileep's bail plea was rejected by the Kerala high court and he is now in judicial custody after the police team probing the matter named him as the key person in the conspiracy that led to the abduction.

Thomas told the IANS news agency that three days ago he had given his Innova car for servicing and was using it since, but it was only on Sunday evening that he came to know the vehicle had been tampered with.

"While I was driving in my constituency, I was waved down by a family in another vehicle who indicated that something was wrong. We stopped the vehicle and when we inspected the tyres, on all four, all the nuts save one was loose. I immediately called the service centre and they came and took the vehicle... they later told me that this is something strange. On Monday morning, I filed a complaint here," he said.

Thomas, however, did not name any suspect in the incident.

Thomas had been the first to reach the residence of director-cum-actor Lal, where the actress, who was abducted while in her own vehicle on 17 February and harassed for two hours, had been dropped.

Reaching there within minutes, Thomas met the actress and immediately called up state police chief Loknath Behera.

Thomas had raised this issue strongly in the Kerala assembly and sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the abduction.

Last week, he also gave his statement to the police.