Malayalam Actor Assault Case: Kerala Court Acquits Dileep In 2017 Assault Case, Prime Accused Pulsar Suni Found Guilty

On Monday, December 8, after an eight-year trial, a Kerala court delivered its verdict in the 2017 assault case involving Malayalam actor Dileep and others. The verdict was pronounced by Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Judge Honey M. Varghese, acquitting the actor Dileep.

Ten individuals- Pulsar Suni, Martin Antony, Salim H., Pradeep, Charly Thomas, Sanil Kumar, Sharath, Manikandan B., Vijesh V.P., and Dinesh, were tried in this case. Two others, Pratheesh Chacko and Raju Joseph, had already been discharged earlier.

The court found the prime accused, Pulsar Suni, guilty of rape, abduction, conspiracy and related offenses while acquitting Dileep. All those tried had been charged under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 20B, 340, 354, 366, 354B and 376D. Actor Dileep, in addition to the above, had faced separate allegations of tampering with evidence.

All About The Case

April 2017 saw the filing of the Malyalam actor assault case's initial chargesheet, which was followed by Dileep's arrest in July of that year and his subsequent release on bail in October. Prime accused Pulsar Suni and his associates were accused of kidnapping, assaulting, and recording compromising images of the survivor, according to Mathrubhumi. Investigators questioned 261 witnesses during the trial, and in 2022, a High Court, mandated fact-finding investigation led to new procedures for managing sensitive digital evidence due to worries about illegal access to the memory card kept in court custody. In addition to hearing testimony from two defense witnesses and reviewing 834 documents, two important witnesses, former MLA P.T. Thomas and filmmaker Balachandra Kumar, died during the trial.