In high-profile Kerala actress abduction case, court acquits actor Dileep

In a much-awaited ruling nearly nine years after the violent incident that shook the south-Indian film industry, the Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court on Monday convicted six men, including the prime accused Pulsar Suni (NS Sunil), in connection with the 2017 abduction and sexual assault of a female actor. Noted Malayali actor Dileep was acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence linking him to the crime.

On the night of 17 February 2017, the actress, often referred to as “the survivor”, was allegedly abducted near Kochi while travelling from Thrissur. According to the prosecution, a six-member gang led by Pulsar Suni forcibly confined her in a moving vehicle, raped her, and recorded the assault on a mobile phone, allegedly with the intent to blackmail or defame her.

The charges filed against the accused included criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, wrongful confinement, outraging modesty, gang-rape, intimidation, destruction of evidence and abetment among others.

Later, the prosecution alleged that Dileep had conspired to orchestrate the assault and video-record it. Dileep was arrested on July 10, 2017. The trial formally began in January 2020 in which 261 witnesses were questioned and sensitive materials like the assault video and memory-card footage examined. Some witnesses turned hostile, and there were claims of tampering with evidence.

In the court session held on Monday under Judge Honey M Varghese, the court found six men guilty of various offences, including abduction, rape and conspiracy, convicting Pulsar Suni and five others involved directly in executing the crime.

However, the court acquitted Dileep stating that the prosecution failed to present conclusive evidence to establish beyond reasonable doubt that he conspired with the other accused.

The acquittal of Dileep is destined to provoke fresh debate over recurring delays and that justice wasn’t fully served. Dileep, a one-time mimicry artist who became an assistant producer and then a star and then the head of a showbiz empire in less than two decades, epitomised the privileged male of the Kerala film industry. Powerful honchos in the field of entertainment often get detached from reality by the intoxication of their success and their association with others who wield power—in the government and the underworld, Open had reported earlier. His ascent was so breathtaking in an industry otherwise dominated by two titans—Mohanlal and Mammootty—that in a set-up where respect for women was scant, he became unabashed about using his connections to extend his grip on the industry.