BREAKING | Kerala Court Acquits Actor Dileep In Actress Rape & Abduction Case, Six Including Pulsar Suni Found Guilty
Pranav B Prem
The Principal District and Sessions Court at Ernakulam today, pronounced its verdict in the 2017 actress assault case, acquitting Malayalam actor Dileep while convicting the principal accused Sunil NS @ Pulsar Suni and five other co-accused. The judgment was delivered by Additional Special Sessions Judge Honey M Varghese.
The Court found Sunil NS @ Pulsar Suni, Martin Antony, Manikandan B, Vijeesh VP, Salim H @ Vadival Salim and Pradeep guilty of offences under 120B, 340-354, 366, 354B and 376D of the Indian Penal Code, and also held them guilty under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. Dileep, who was arrayed as A8, was acquitted of all charges.
The prosecution case was that on February 17, 2017, the survivor, a well-known South Indian actress, was abducted on her way to a film shoot in Thrissur and sexually assaulted inside a moving vehicle. It was alleged that the assailants also recorded videos of the assault. The investigation began immediately after the incident, with the arrest of the driver Martin Antony the next day and the arrest of Sunil NS @ Pulsar Suni—described in the charge as a history-sheeter—within a week. By the end of that month, four more persons had been arrested and named as accused.
In July 2017, Dileep was arrested on allegations that he had conspired with others to orchestrate the assault as revenge for the survivor allegedly informing his then wife about his extramarital relationship. His first two bail applications were rejected by the Kerala High Court before he was granted bail in October 2017 after spending 83 days in custody. Meanwhile, Suni remained incarcerated for over seven years until the Supreme Court granted him bail last year.
The charges invoked in the case included 120B (criminal conspiracy), 109 (abetment of offence), 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman), 354 (use of criminal force with intent to outrage modesty), 354B (use of criminal force with intention to disrobe), 357 (wrongful confinement), 376D (gang rape), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 212 (harbouring offender), read with Section 34 (acts done with common intention).
The accused who stood trial were A1 Sunil NS @ Pulsar Suni, A2 Martin Antony, A3 Manikandan B, A4 Vijeesh VP, A5 Salim H @ Vadival Salim, A6 Pradeep, A7 Charlie Thomas, A8 P Gopalakrishnan @ Dileep, A9 Sanilkumar @ Mesthiri Sanil and A15 Sarath G Nair. Sanilkumar and Sarath G Nair were added later through a supplementary chargesheet. One of the original accused, Vishnu, turned approver, while Vipin Lal BL and Aneesh PK were pardoned and examined as prosecution witnesses. Another pair of accused, advocate Pratheesh Chacko and Raju Joseph, were discharged during the trial.
Cause Title: State of Kerala v. Sunil N.S. @ Pulsar Suni and Ors.
Case No: SC 118 of 2018
Coram: Smt. Honey M Varghese
