Actress assault case: Kerala court acquits actor Dileep, six found guilty

AKerala margaret court on mon not guilty Malayalam worker Dileep in a caseful relating to the kidnapping and sexual assault of an actress in Kochi in 2017.The Ernakulam Principal District and Sessions Court, however, found six others, including prime accused Sunil N S alias Pulsar Suni, who directly committed the crime, guilty.The prosecution could not prove the charge of conspiracy against actor Dileep, it said. A detailed order is awaited.The verdict was pronounced by Ernakulam principal sessions judge Honey M Varghese, who had concluded the hearing in the trial on November 25.The actress, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours on the night of February 17, 2017, by some persons who forced their way into the vehicle and later escaped in a busy area of Kochi.The trial proceedings in the case began in January 2020.The prosecution claimed that the complainant informed Dileep’s first wife, Manju Warrier, of his affairs with another actress. There was an altercation between the complainant and Dileep over this issue during the rehearsal of an event in 2016.The conspiracy was hatched in the aftermath of the fight at a hotel in Kochi later. Like the case itself, the trial also witnessed several twists and turns.Dileep was arrested in July 2017 by the Kerala police and spent 88 days in prison before securing bail in the case.In 2019, Dileep approached the Kerala High Court seeking a CBI probe, but the plea was dismissed. In 2019, the Supreme Court directed that the trial be completed in a six-month period.Also Read: Actress assault case: Court to restart trial against actor Dileep on November 10Just when the trial in the case was about to end, a fresh case surfaced following the disclosure of Malayalam director Balachandra Kumar last December, who told the police that he met prime accused Pular Suni, a history sheeter, at Dileep’s residence in 2016 when he went there to discuss a project.He also alleged that he was privy to a conversation at Dileep’s house, where he heard about a conspiracy to eliminate officials who investigated the case. His disclosure led to a fresh case being filed against Dileep and four others.A new FIR was lodged against Dileep based on the director’s claims.Balachandra Kumar passed away in December 2024 due to heart and kidney-related ailments.Apart from Suni and Dileep, the other accused in the case are Martin Antony (2), B Manikandan (3), VP Vijeesh (4), H Salim (5), Pradeep (6), Charley Thomas (7), Sanil Kumar (9) and Sarath G Nair (15).The accused 1 to 6 were directly involved in the kidnapping and sexual assault, the prosecution contended. Charley, the seventh accused, is accused of harbouring the accused and Sanil Kumar, the ninth accused, faces charges of conspiracy. The 15th accused faces charges of destroying evidence in the case.The accused face charges ranging from kidnapping and gangrape, criminal conspiracy, wrongfully confining a person and assaulting a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, causing disappearance of evidence and related offences under the Information Technology Act.During the trial of the case, 261 witnesses were examined, of whom 28 turned hostile, and over 1,600 documents were perused. The prosecution and the defence moved dozens of appeals against several decisions of the trial court in the High Court and the Supreme Court, contributing to long delays.