Just days after actor Dileep was acquitted in the 2017 actress abduction and sexual assault case, a district sessions court on Friday awarded 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment to the first six accused, who were found guilty earlier this week.
Judge Honey Varghese of the Ernakulam district court sentenced the six men — Pulsar Suni (37), Martin Antony (33), B Manikandan (37), Vijeesh V P (38), Salim H (30), and Pradeep (31) — all of whom were directly involved in the abduction and assault inside a moving vehicle in February 2017. Each convict was also fined ₹50,000.
The men were convicted under IPC sections related to gangrape, criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, outraging the modesty of a woman, criminal force, destruction of evidence, and recording and distributing obscene images.
Earlier this week, the court acquitted actor Dileep, the eighth accused, along with Charlie Thomas, Sanil Kumar (alias Mestri Sanil) and Sarath Nair.
The prosecution had alleged that Dileep hired Pulsar Suni to carry out the assault and record it — a case widely described as a rare instance of “supari for rape”. The court held that these charges could not be proven.
Charlie was accused of sheltering the assailants after the crime, while Sanil was charged with conspiring inside jail to extort money from Dileep. Sarath faced charges for handling and destroying the assault visuals. Meanwhile, three co-accused — Vishnu, Vipinlal and Aneesh — had turned approvers.
The Kerala government has announced it will appeal the acquittals, reaffirming its support for the survivor, who has worked in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu cinema.
Kerala Law Minister P. Rajeev said the verdict did not deliver “complete justice”. “Those directly involved in the crime were found guilty, but this was not the verdict everyone expected,” he said. “The state government has always stood strongly with the survivor, and that will continue.”