Actor Dilip has been acquitted in the Kochi actress attack case. The court has found 6 people including the main accused Pulsar Suni guilty. Dilip was accused of masterminding the attack, while others were directly involved in kidnapping and gang rape.
Kochi: Actor Dilip, the eighth accused in the case of attack on the actress, has been acquitted. The court has found six accused including the first accused Pulsar Suni guilty in the case. Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court has given this verdict acquitting Dileep. Six accused, including Pulsar Suni, who were directly involved in this crime, were mainly accused of gang rape, kidnapping and conspiracy. All these were proved. The prosecution had also accused the eighth accused, Dilip, of rape, even though he was not directly involved in the crime, but he was described as the main conspirator. Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese delivered the verdict in the case after completing a six-year-long trial. Ten people, including six accused directly involved in the crime, were prosecuted. Dilip was accused of giving the rape quotation due to personal enmity with the victim actress. However, Dilip argued that he has been implicated in this case and the prosecution has presented false evidence in the court.
This is one of the most discussed cases in the country, on which the final decision has now come. During the hearing of the case, 28 witnesses had turned hostile. In February 2017, the actress was brutally attacked in a moving vehicle in Kochi. In this case, other accused including Dilip and Pulsar Suni, who had earlier gone to jail, were out on bail. Actor Dilip was arrested in this case on 10 July 2017. Dilip got bail after 85 days in October 2017. The first accused, Pulsar Suni, who was arrested in February 2017, was released in September last year after getting bail from the Supreme Court. The hearing of the case began in 2019. 261 witnesses were examined. The court considered 1700 documents. Three accused were made government witnesses in the case. Police officers Aneesh, Vipin Lal and Vishnu were made government witnesses. Two accused in the case, lawyer Raju Joseph and lawyer Pratish Chacko, were acquitted by the district court.
The victim actress herself told the court during the hearing that actor Dilip had enmity with her since 2012. The actress had testified in the court that Dilip was angry with her since 2012 and the reason for this was that he had told Manju Warrier about his relationship with Kavya Madhavan. The testimony also said that Dileep had said that whoever stood against him could not reach anywhere in Malayalam cinema. Meanwhile, the first accused Pulsar Suni also rejected Dileep’s claim that he did not know him. Pulsar Suni said that both of them knew each other. The prosecution had told the court that Pulsar Suni and his gang had earlier also tried to make a video by raping the actress. There was a plan to carry out this incident on January 3, 2017 in Goa. But, the actress returned after completing the shooting early, hence this plan failed. After this he was attacked in Kochi.
Accused in the case of attack on actress
1. Sunil Kumar (Pulsar Sunil)
2. Martin Antony
3. Manikandan
4. Vijeesh V P
5. Salim alias Vadiwal Salim
6. Pradeep
(The first six accused were directly involved in the crime)
7. Charlie Thomas (helped the accused escape)
8. Dilip (conspired the crime)
9. Sanalkumar (Helped the accused in jail. Helped in talking to Appunni and Nadirsha on phone)
10. Sharatji Nair (made accused after Balachandrakumar’s revelations)