After Eight Years, Court To Deliver Verdict In Kerala Actor Assault Case Against Dileep Tomorrow

The long-awaited verdict in the Kerala actor assault case will be announced on December 8, 2025, by a Sessions Court in Ernakulam. This comes eight years after a well-known woman actor was abducted and sexually assaulted in Kochi, a shocking crime that later led to Malayalam superstar Dileep being named as an accused

She was held inside her own car, where she was sexually assaulted by Pulsar Suni, a history-sheeter who also recorded the attack on his phone.

After nearly two hours of assault, she was dropped near a filmmaker’s house, who immediately helped her reach the police.

Investigators soon discovered that this was not a random attack but part of a larger plan. Suni had told the survivor during the assault that he was acting on a “quotation,” meaning a contract issued by someone else.

Also, read| Film Director-Writer Manish Gupta Exposes Allegations Made By Driver As Extortion Racket

As the investigation progressed, police uncovered phone records, statements, and links between several accused men.

These findings eventually led them to actor Dileep, whom they arrested on July 10, 2017. He was made the eighth accused in the case and charged with criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, gang rape, and violations under the Information Technology Act.

The police said Dileep held a personal grudge against the survivor due to events that happened years earlier involving his first wife, actor Manju Warrier, and his now-wife, actor Kavya Madhavan.

According to investigators, the survivor had once confirmed details of his affair, which Dileep allegedly viewed as a betrayal.

After Dileep’s arrest, the Malayalam film industry was sharply divided.

Many actors supported the survivor, while others backed Dileep. The case soon became one of the most closely watched trials in Kerala, with intense media coverage and heated public debates about power, gender, and safety in cinema. Dileep spent 85 days in custody before getting bail in October 2017.

Read Also: Hard Disk Containing Key Footage From Vishnu Manchu Kannappa Goes Missing

The trial that followed was long, complicated, and full of controversies. The prosecution and the trial judge often clashed, and two special public prosecutors resigned, accusing the judge of bias.

Several important witnesses turned hostile, including close friends of the survivor, weakening parts of the case. But new twists kept emerging. In 2021, director Balachandrakumar claimed he had secretly recorded conversations at Dileep’s home, suggesting the actor had access to the assault video.

A makeup artist also testified that Pulsar Suni had once worked as Kavya Madhavan’s driver, creating new links between the accused.

Another major controversy came when a forensic report revealed that the memory card containing the video of the assault, which was supposed to be safely stored in court custody, had been accessed illegally multiple times.

A High Court-ordered probe found that court staff and a magistrate had viewed the card without permission, but no action was taken against them. The media house that exposed this was instead hit with contempt cases.

Even as the trial continued, police registered a fresh FIR accusing Dileep of plotting to intimidate the investigating officers. Meanwhile, Pulsar Suni remained in custody until the Supreme Court granted him bail in 2024 due to the long delay in the trial. Final arguments ended in February 2025, but the court continued seeking clarifications until November.

The case has had a huge impact on the Malayalam film industry. It opened a wider conversation about the safety of women working in cinema, the unequal power structures on film sets, and the lack of proper grievance systems.

In response to the assault, women actors formed the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) in 2017 to demand safer work environments. The Kerala government also set up the Hema Committee in 2019 to study the condition of women in the film industry.

Although the committee submitted its report the same year, it was made public only in 2024, and even then, only in a heavily edited form. The report still triggered another wave of discussion about exploitation, harassment, and reform in Malayalam cinema.