Verdict delivered after an eight-and-a-half-year trial.
Dileep was accused of conspiring and hiring goons to carry out the assault.
After the acquittal, Dileep claims the “real conspiracy” was against him.
A district sessions court in Ernakulam, Kerala, has acquitted actor Dileep in the 2017 actress abduction and assault case. Judge Honey M. Varghese delivered the verdict, while convicting the first six accused, including prime accused Pulsar Suni and five others, for abduction, sexual assault and related offences.
The court held that the prosecution had failed to “establish a conspiracy angle” — meaning that investigators did not produce sufficient evidence to prove that Dileep had conspired to abduct and assault the actress. It also found no merit in the documents and digital evidence presented to substantiate the alleged conspiracy.
Dileep was accused of conspiring and hiring a goonda gang to rape the actress.
Reacting to the verdict, Dileep made veiled remarks aimed at his former wife, actor Manju Warrier. “The real conspiracy was against me. It all started after Manju Warrier pointed out a conspiracy angle in the case. The criminal police officers and some media platforms picked this up. They worked hand in glove with the criminals arrested in the case and tried to fix me,” he alleged.
As Dileep left the court premises, some of his fans attempted to manhandle reporters, accusing the media of having “conspired” against the actor throughout the trial.
After the judgment exonerating Dileep was delivered, actor Rima Kallingal — a member of the Women in Cinema Collective — posted on Facebook a poster that read “Avalkoppam” (With the survivor). “Always. Stronger than ever, now,” she wrote in solidarity
Kerala Culture Minister Saji Cheriyan said the government would continue to stand with the survivor. Future steps, he added, would be taken after examining the detailed judgment.
The case dates back to February 17, 2017, when a prominent South Indian actress was abducted while travelling from Thrissur to Kochi. Inside the moving vehicle, she was sexually assaulted for nearly two hours, and the assault was recorded on video. Her testimony later broke a long silence around misogyny, exploitation, and entrenched power structures within the Malayalam film industry.
According to the prosecution, Dileep and the survivor were once friends. The fallout allegedly began after Dileep learned she had disclosed his extramarital relationship with actor Kavya Madhavan—now his wife—to his then-wife, Manju Warrier. The prosecution argues that the abduction and sexual assault were orchestrated as an act of revenge.
Dileep was arrested in July 2017 and named the eighth accused for allegedly masterminding the attack. He spent 83 days in jail before securing bail.
