Court acquits actor Dileep, convicts six in 2017 actress sexual assault case

A Kerala court on Monday acquitted Malayalam cinema star Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, in which six people, including the main accused, charged with committing the crime, were pronounced guilty. In a case that made national headlines while sending shockwaves over the top actor’s alleged involvement in the matter, three others, including Dileep’s close friend Sarath, were also acquitted.

Coming out from the court, Dileep said that there was a “real conspiracy” by some police officials and a section of the media to implicate him in the case earlier with an eye on destroying his career.

Dileep also said that his first wife and actress Manju Warrier, started a conspiracy to tag him in the case. The Left Government in Kerala said it would prefer an appeal against the lower court verdict while reiterating its support to the survivor, a multi-lingual female actor who has worked in a number of Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies.

Apart from Dileep (57), the eighth accused in the case, the court also acquitted three others — Charley Thomas (A7), Sanil Kumar alias Mesthri Sanil (A9) and Sarath (A15). The verdict was pronounced by Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Judge Honey M Varghese, in a tightly packed courtroom here.

Judge Honey M Varghese began by substantiating the offences charged in the case and then declared the first six accused — Sunil, Martin Antony, Manikandan B, Vijesh VP, Salim H, and Pradeep, guilty.

“Since the offenses are grave and serious in nature and perpetrated against a woman, the accused is not entitled to get benevolence of the Probation of Offenders Act.

Bail bonds of A1 to A6 are cancelled and remanded to custody,” the court ordered. They were charged under Sections of the then IPC and IT Act, including criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, gang rape, kidnapping or abducting a woman, and criminal force to a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty. Later, after reading out the charges against Dileep, the court found him not guilty.

Dileep was acquitted after the court ruled the prosecution failed to substantiate the charges, including criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, assault, gang rape, and related IPC offences.