TNM has followed this case from the start. For verified and timely updates and legal explanations, join our WhatsApp Channel.
The atmosphere in the Ernakulam district court complex was thick with anticipation on the morning of Monday, December 8. Police flanked the entrance, taking a quiet note of every person walking by. Only lawyers and court staff were allowed to enter the new six-storey building, where Judge Honey Varghese would pronounce the verdict in the 2017 actor assault case in another hour and a half.
I was able to walk past the security, along with my colleagues, courtesy of my lawyer's gown, which I had stopped wearing almost half a decade ago when I switched to journalism. Judge Honey’s court on the third floor – Court of the Additional Special Sessions Judge – was empty. A few police officers were stationed outside the hall, and we decided to wait for things to gain momentum.
Soon after, at around 9.30 am, the judge was seen walking down the corridor, clad in a modest off-white cotton saree. She appeared pleasant, exchanging greetings with her staff members, far removed from the stern gravity one might expect of an officer poised to deliver a verdict that the entire state was watching with bated breath.
By 10 am, people were slowly moving towards the courtroom. Inside, the stage was being set for the destinies of actor Dileep, the prime accused Pulsar Suni, the survivor herself, and a whole gender justice movement of the state to change forever.
‘Accused number 8 not guilty’
The verdict was to be pronounced at 11 am, and lawyers, police officers, and court staff began to fill the courtroom.
The case, among the most closely followed in Kerala’s recent history, concerns the abduction and sexual assault of a prominent woman actor in a moving car in Kochi on February 17, 2017.
Suni was arrested within days of the assault. Over the next few months, the investigation examined whether the assault was part of a larger conspiracy, ultimately leading to Dileep’s arrest on July 10, 2017. He was listed as the eighth accused in the chargesheet.
The judge had mandated that all the accused must be present in court on the day of the verdict. Accused number three, Manikandan, who was with Suni on the night of the assault, was the first to reach the court. He was followed by Martin Antony, accused number two, who was the survivor’s driver on the night.
Suni walked in after, his expression mildly stressed. Once he settled down, he remained expressionless throughout the proceedings. His aides, accused 4, 5, and 6 – Vijesh, Salim, and Pradeep, arrived soon, in that order.
By then, the courtroom was teeming with people, including journalists, the counsels representing the accused and the survivor, and other curious lawyers.
Dileep reached the court closer to 11 am, clad in a white shirt and blue jeans, with many religious threads on his hand. He seemed to be constantly chanting something.
The judge took her seat at 11 am and called the case number. She asked those crowding the room to allow space. “I want to communicate clearly to the accused,” she said.
The accused were all lined up, one beside the other, at the back of the room.
She then read out the brief facts of the case and went on to the verdict, in English. She read out the charges and the verdict with respect to accused numbers one to six first. Suni was convicted of rape, but acquitted of criminal intimidation.
The verdict on Dileep, accused number eight, was pronounced after. The judge pronounced him not guilty of orchestrating the abduction and assault. She also said that he is acquitted of all charges.
Dileep pressed his hand on the railing before him and looked up at the ceiling, teary-eyed. Thereafter, he kept glancing upwards before bowing to the judge and walking out of the room.
The room heaved. It was difficult to make out whether it was a celebratory cheer or a sigh of disappointment. But outside the hall, where there was a lull in the morning, cheers were heard. Dileep walked out, a huge group of people shadowing him, capturing how differently history sounds depending on where you stand.
Several television cameras and microphones were thrust at Dileep as he walked out, hands folded. Journalists and lawyers swarmed him, saying “Dileep ettaa…” His temperament instantly transformed from the heavy-faced, mellow demeanour he had meticulously maintained through the course of the eight years of the case.
“If there was any criminal conspiracy at all, it was against me,” he said.
“It was Manju Warrier who first suggested that there was a criminal conspiracy in the case. That was when the conspiracy against me began,” Dileep claimed. Manju was his former wife, and he was accused of hatching the conspiracy against the survivor because she informed Manju of his affair with Kavya Madhavan, his wife now.
Dileep also blasted the police officials who investigated the crime, calling them criminals who cooked up a fake narrative against him, in cohorts with certain media outlets.
While a verdict eventually is what it is, when a powerful man accused of orchestrating what we know as the first ‘quotation rape’ (hiring men to commit rape) resorts to fan power, shaming the survivor and those who stood by her, it reflects the lack of safety survivors face within this system.
The sentencing was posted for December 12. The full judgement will allow us to know more details about the legal reasoning behind the verdict.
This is not just a case that is limited to the lives of the individuals involved. It laid bare the gender power imbalance in the Malayalam film industry, triggering systemic changes, including the publication of the Hema Committee Report.
As Kerala state asserted that it would appeal against the verdict, it remains to be seen where this case now goes.
Read our detailed coverage of the Kerala actor assault case over the years here.