On 8 December 2025, the Principal District and Sessions Court in Ernakulam delivered its judgment in an eight-year-long case involving the sexual assault of a South Indian film actor. It convicted six people of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and gang rape, among other charges, but acquitted the Malayalam film superstar Dileep, rejecting the prosecution’s claim that he masterminded the attack. The case makes visible the experience of a survivor forced to confront not just the crime committed against her but also procedural barriers within the justice system that seem set up to shield the powerful and well-connected.
On 17 February 2017, the female actor was travelling between Thrissur and Kochi when a group of six men forcibly stopped her vehicle, abducted her and sexually assaulted her inside a moving car, with the attack recorded on a mobile device. After the assault, she was dropped outside a film director’s residence. The following day, she filed a police complaint naming one of the assailants, Sunil N S, also known as Pulsar Suni, a driver associated with the film industry.
Investigators described the assault as a “quotation rape” or contracted assault, with prosecutors alleging that Dileep had hired the rapist to perpetrate the attack and charging him with criminal conspiracy. According to media reports, the police charge sheet stated that Dileep’s motive stemmed from a longstanding enmity with the survivor, and that he asked the prime accused, Sunil, to record the assault and send the video to him, allegedly for use in blackmail.
The independent media outlet The News Minute, which has followed the case closely, documented procedural violations and a possible breach of access to the assault video. Phone call recordings cited in these reports suggested that Dileep was actually in possession of the visuals. They suggested Dileep’s hostility towards the survivor, and the charge sheet noted that he was in possession of the visuals. While Dileep’s alleged role in orchestrating the attack was central to the prosecution’s case, the absence of supporting evidence in court ultimately undermined it. During the trial, 28 witnesses turned hostile, including many from the Malayalam film industry whose early statements to investigators had helped the prosecution build its case of conspiracy. Their apparent change of heart seems to be another indicator of Dileep’s clout.