Dileep acquitted in Kerala actor rape case; six found guilty

Actor Dileep, an accused in the sensational Kerala actor rape case, can walk free as a trial court in Kochi has acquitted him of all the criminal charges levelled against him.

Honey M. Varghese, the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Judge, on Monday (December 8, 2025) acquitted Mr. Dileep of the offences charged against him in the case after the trial that lasted around eight years. Mr. Dileep was the eighth accused.

The court, however, finds accused from no. 1 to no. 6 guilty. The court will pronounce the punishment on December 12.

Also read | Kerala actor rape case LIVE

The accused in the case were the first accused, N.S. Sunil, alias ‘Pulsur Suni’, the second accused, Martin Antony, third accused B. Manikandan, fourth accused V. P. Vijeesh, fifth accused H. Salim alias Vadiwal Salim, sixth accused Pradeep, seventh accused Charlie Thomas, ninth accused Sanil Kumar, alias Mestri Sanil, and the fifteenth accused, Sarath Nair.

The charges levelled against the first six accused and Mr. Dileep included gang rape, criminal conspiracy, outraging the modesty of a woman, wrongful confinement, use of criminal force, destruction of evidence, taking and distributing obscene images.

The court premises as well as the court hall were packed with lawyers, mediapersons and friends and relatives of the accused. All the accused were asked to be present in the court hall to hear the verdict.

Actors as witnesses

The case had attracted wide attention as prominent film personalities were involved in it, including the survivor and the accused, Mr. Dileep. A large number of actors were also examined as witnesses in the case.

The prosecution had termed actors Bindu Panicker, Edavela Babu and Bhama as hostile witnesses after they retracted from their earlier statements given to the police when cross-examined in the court.

The details of the verdict will be known when the court uploads the judgment in the public domain.

The prosecution’s case was that the accused raped the actor in a moving car on February 17, 2017. The first accused, the prosecution alleged, recorded the alleged act in a mobile phone following the conspiracy.

Mr. Dileep was accused of conspiring with Pulsar Suni to humiliate the survivor. He suggested filming nude scenes and sexual acts of the actress and offered ₹1.5 crore for the job.

Recreating the crime sequences, the prosecution had alleged that on the night of the incident, the actress left her residence in Thrissur in an SUV driven by Martin. Later, Martin informed ‘Pulsur’ Sunil about the car’s location over the phone.

Sunil followed her in a van. Manikandan and Vijeesh were also in the vehicle. At Athani near Aluva, the van was rammed into the woman actor’s vehicle, and a fake accident was created.

While Martin got out of the car, Manikandan and Vijeesh forced their way into the back seat of the vehicle in which the actor was travelling. They forcibly held the actress’s hands and covered her mouth. Pradeep joined the other accused when the car reached Kalamassery.

Meanwhile, Sunil threatened the actor and told her that he was about to implement a quotation. He stripped her naked, raped her and recorded the scenes in his mobile phone.