Kochi, 8 Dec

A Kerala court on Monday acquitted Malayalam actor Dileep in the 2017 sexual assault case involving a south Indian actress, while finding six others, including prime accused Sunil NS alias Pulsar Suni, who directly committed the crime, guilty.

Apart from Dileep, the court also acquitted three others in the case.

The verdict was pronounced by Ernakulam Principal Sessions Judge Honey M Varghese, who had concluded the hearing in the lengthy trial on 25 November, in a tightly packed court room here.

The CPI(M) said the Kerala government would file an appeal on the matter.

Besides Sunil, the others convicted are Martin Antony, Manikandan B, Vijesh VP, Salim H, and Pradeep - the first six accused in the case.

They were charged under Sections 120A (conspiracy), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 109 (abetment of offence), 342 (wrongful confinement), 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman), 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty), 354B (use of criminal force to disrobe a woman), 357 (use of criminal force to wrongfully confine a person), 376D (gang rape), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 212 (harbouring an offender) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.

The court will consider the matter on 12 December, when the quantum of punishment is expected to be announced.

While the first six accused were convicted on all counts, Dileep and three others were fully discharged.

The assault on the multi-lingual actress after the miscreants forced their way into the car she was travelling in and kept it under their control for two hours, had shaken the conscience of Kerala.

According to the prosecution, several persons forced their way into the vehicle on the night of 17 February, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area.

Police arrested the accused soon after the incident and filed the first charge sheet against seven persons in April 2017.

During further investigation, Dileep was arrested on 10 July, 2017 after the probe team found that the prime accused, Sunil, had allegedly sent a letter to him from jail. Dileep was granted bail on 3 October, 2017.

CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan said the government would file an appeal in the High Court against the verdict to ensure complete justice for the survivor actress.

It was in November 2017, police filed a supplementary charge sheet against seven more persons, including Dileep. Five of them were later discharged or turned approvers.

Although the mobile phone used to record the sexual assault visuals could not be traced, police had relied on the memory card containing the videos, which was submitted in court by a lawyer.

The prosecution had claimed that the complainant informed Dileep's first wife, Manju Warrier, of his affair with another actress. There was a fight between the complainant and Dileep over this during the rehearsal of a stage event in 2016.

The prosecution argued that the conspiracy was hatched in the aftermath of the fight at a hotel in Kochi later.

Like the case itself, the trial too witnessed several twists and turns. 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.

However, frequent petitions before higher courts by the accused, the prosecution and the complainant delayed proceedings, and the trial finally began only in January 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic halted proceedings for several months.

Later, Special Prosecutor A Suresan resigned, and the prosecution approached higher courts seeking transfer of the trial to another court in December 2020.

On December 29, 2021, when the investigation officer was to be examined as the last witness, the prosecution had informed the court that new information had emerged and sought further investigation, halting the trial again.

The further probe was based on revelations by film director B Balachandra Kumar that Dileep possessed visuals of the victim.

Another allegation was that Dileep conspired to harm the investigation officers, leading to another case against him and five others.

When the trial resumed, VN Anilkumar was appointed Special Public Prosecutor. He resigned in December 2021 and was replaced by V Ajaykumar. Another major twist emerged in 2022 when police moved the trial court seeking an inquiry into illegal access to the memory card kept in court custody.

Though the petition was dismissed, the Kerala High Court had later ordered a fact-finding inquiry after the complainant alleged tampering. It was revealed that the memory card had been accessed by a magistrate and later by officials at the District Sessions Court.

This led the High Court to issue detailed guidelines on handling sexually explicit evidence in December 2023. A total of 261 witnesses were examined during the trial, including several from the film industry. Many actor-witnesses turned hostile. The investigation officer alone was examined for 109 days. The court admitted 834 documents and two defence witnesses.

Meanwhile, two key witnesses - former MLA PT Thomas and director Balachandra Kumar- died during the trial stage.