“Abducting someone is not a big deal. It’s like picking up a chicken from the street. There’s no real risk,” said Pulsar Suni, one of Kerala’s most high-profile criminal suspects.
On December 8, the Principal District and Sessions Court convicted Suni of abducting and sexually assaulting a top female actor. The quantum of punishment for the crime, which took place on February 17, 2017, will be decided by the court on December 12.
Suni told TNM that he had carried out the rape for a promised amount of “1.5 crore rupees.”
In September 2024, the Supreme Court had granted Suni bail, noting that “the trial is not likely to be concluded within a reasonable time.”
During the thirteen months he spent out on bail, Suni was barred from speaking to the media. But one month after he stepped out of prison, he agreed to be interviewed by TNM’s Nidhi Suresh, speaking to her over multiple phone and in-person conversations.
Early in the exchange, he issued a direct threat: “If by any chance word gets out that I spoke to you, it won’t just be bad for me but for you as well. Don’t misunderstand me, it is a threat. I hope you understand why I need to say that.”
Throughout these conversations, Suni described the violence he inflicted upon the survivor, as though he were narrating a scene from a film. He said that in February 2017, he and five other men abducted the leading female actor, and held her captive in her own car. He admitted to sexually assaulting her in the back seat, while the vehicle drove through the busy streets of Kochi around 9pm.
The assault, he explained, was video recorded on a mobile phone. Suni also said that he made three copies of the visuals of the assault.
What Suni did is classified as rape under the Indian law. TNM will not go into details of his description.
According to him, he had done the survivor a “favour” by not gangraping her, and said he expected her to be grateful.
This is a crime that stunned Kerala.
But Suni was confused over the public attention surrounding his crime, stating, “This is not such a big deal. It is you people [the media] who made this a big deal.”
Listen to a clip of TNM's conversation with Suni:
Suni is not new to the world of crime. Since the age of 19, he has repeatedly been in and out of jail for offences including narcotics, theft, robbery, money laundering, kidnapping, and, most recently, rape.
Despite working in the Malayalam film industry as a driver for nearly two decades, he claimed that he was more in demand for criminal activities — a fact, he claimed, was well known within the industry.
According to Suni, he had expected to spend no more than “a hundred days” in jail for the assault on the actor. “I didn’t realise that what I did to her counted as rape. Now I know, but as a 28-year-old hot-blooded man, how can you expect me to know all that?”
In the interviews, Suni spoke at length about his association with Dileep. Most of what Suni told us about Dileep was what he had told the police in his deposition but denied in court. Dileep, who was the eight accused in this case, was acquitted by the court saying the prosecution could not prove the conspiracy.
Nidhi’s in-depth profile titled ‘Inside the twisted mind of a hired rapist’ provides insight into the mind of an unrepentant criminal. But more than anything, it exposes how his confidence is enabled by the Malayalam film industry’s willingness to accommodate men like him.
Examining Suni’s worldview provides an essential insight into the culture of impunity surrounding such crimes.
Read the full story.