The Principal District and Sessions Court in Ernakulam on Monday acquitted Malayalam actor Dileep in the 2017 case relating to the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent woman actor, while convicting six other accused, including the prime accused Sunil N S alias Pulsar Suni.
Delivering the verdict, Sessions Court judge Honey M Varghese held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against Dileep, who was listed as the eighth accused, and against Charlie Thomas, the seventh accused. Both were acquitted. Accused one to six were found guilty of a range of serious offences, including criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and gang rape. The court said sentences would be pronounced on December 12.
Those convicted are Sunil N S alias Pulsar Suni, Martin Antony, Manikandan B, Vijeesh V P, Salim H alias Vadival Salim, and Pradeep. The court found them guilty under Sections 120B, 340, 354, 366, 354B and 376D of the Indian Penal Code, covering criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, use of criminal force to outrage modesty, kidnapping, use of force to disrobe a woman and gang rape. They were also convicted under provisions of the Information Technology Act for recording the sexual assault.
The case relates to an incident on February 17, 2017, when the woman actor was abducted while travelling to a film shoot in Thrissur and sexually assaulted inside a moving vehicle. The assault was filmed by the perpetrators.
Martin Antony, the driver of the vehicle, was arrested the next day. Within a week, Sunil N S alias Pulsar Suni was arrested and named as the first accused. Four more men were arrested by the end of that month. Suni remained in custody for more than seven years before being granted bail by the Supreme Court last year.
Dileep was arrested in July 2017 on allegations that he had conspired to orchestrate the crime as an act of revenge, following personal disputes involving his then-wife. His first two bail applications were rejected by the Kerala High Court, and he was granted bail only in October 2017 after spending 83 days in judicial custody.
The trial formally began in 2020 and stretched on for nearly five years. The acquittal of Dileep, one of the most prominent actors in Malayalam cinema, brings his prosecution in one of Kerala’s most closely watched criminal trials to an end for now.
The judgment does not necessarily mark the end of the legal battle. It remains open to the survivor to challenge Dileep’s acquittal before the Kerala High Court, a step that would bring the alleged conspiracy back under judicial scrutiny.