Kochi: Actor Dileep has been acquitted in the high-profile actress assault case, while the court has found the first six accused guilty. Ernakulam Principal Sessions Judge Honey M Varghese concluded the trial on Monday. The sentencing for the convicted accused is scheduled for December 12. The bail of those found guilty has been cancelled.
The court found the six accused guilty of rape, conspiracy, abduction and other offences under Section 120 B, 340, 354, 366, 354B and 376D of the Indian Penal Code. 

The convicted are

  1.  Sunil N S, aka Pulsar Suni (first accused)
  2. Martin Antony (second accused)
  3. B Manikandan (third accused)
  4. V P Vijeesh (fourth accused)
  5. H Salim, aka Vadival Salim (fifth accused)
  6. Pradeep (sixth accused)
     
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    Dileep; Convicted ones in the actress assault case 

    The judge has observed that the prosecution has failed to prove Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with Punishment for Criminal Conspiracy, against Dileep. Meanwhile, seventh accused Charley Thomas (seventh accused), Sanilkumar (ninth accused) and Sarath G Nair (15th accused) were also acquitted in the case.

The prosecution presented 221 documents, and 28 people turned approvers in the case. Charges included defamation, conspiracy, humiliation of women, unlawful confinement, use of force, destruction of evidence, obscene filming and dissemination of indecent material.

The case had drawn nationwide attention after a young actress was allegedly abducted and assaulted inside a moving car. Dileep was accused of conspiring with Pulsar Suni on multiple occasions to humiliate the survivor, allegedly suggesting filming obscene scenes involving the actress, and offering ₹1.5 crore for the crime.

According to the prosecution, the first six accused were directly involved in the assault, while Charley Thomas allegedly harboured the perpetrators. Sanilkumar, the ninth accused, conspired to link the primary accused to Dileep, and Sarath G Nair, a friend of Dileep, was accused of destroying crucial evidence.
The trial began on March 8, 2018, with a female judge appointed by the High Court at the survivor’s request. The proceedings were conducted in secrecy. Subsequently, the Crime Branch conducted further investigation based on revelations by director Balachandrakumar, filing a second charge sheet. DYSP Baiju K Paulose was the investigating officer. The initial charge sheet had excluded some accused while three others turned as approvers. Two lawyers—who were reportedly handed the mobile phone containing visuals of the crime by Pulsar Suni—were excluded. Despite extensive searches, including in the Kochi backwaters, the police were unable to recover the mobile phone, which was a key piece of evidence.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court had ordered a probe into the alteration of the hash value of the memory card storing the visuals, following a plea by the survivor seeking investigation under the HC’s supervision.

All the accused, including Dileep and Pulsar Suni, were present in court when the verdict was delivered.

The assault occurred on February 17, 2017 at Athani in Ernakulam while the actress was travelling from Thrissur for a film shoot. According to the prosecution, Pulsar Suni and his associates abducted, assaulted, and filmed compromising visuals of the actress as part of a planned crime. The main accused were arrested shortly after the incident, while Dileep was taken into custody in July 2017.