State moves Kerala High Court against acquittal of Dileep in actress assault case

The State government has moved the Kerala High Court challenging the recent verdict of a trial court which acquitted Malayalam cine actor Dileep in the 2017 actress gang rape case.

In December 2025, Ernakulam Principal District and Sessions Court judge Honey M Varghese acquitted Dileep while convicting six other men of the crime.

The sessions court sentenced the six convicts to 20 years rigorous imprisonment which is the minimum prescribed punishment under Section 376D (gang rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Dileep's acquittal and the awarding of the minimum sentence drew severe criticism with Law Minister P Rajeev confirming on December 8, the day the judgment on conviction was delivered, that the State would appeal the verdict and stand with the survivor.

The State government in its appeal has sought for conviction of Dileep as well as three others who were acquitted by the trial court, Charlie Thomas, Sanilkumar aka Mesthiri Sanil and Sarath G Nair.

The State has also sought for enhancement of the sentence awarded to the convicted persons namely Sunil NS aka Pulsar Suni, Martin Antony, Manikandan B, Vijeesh VP, Salim H aka Vadival Salim and Pradeep.

The survivor actress was on her way to a film shoot location in February 2017 when she was abducted and sexually assaulted by a group of men, in a moving vehicle.

The men also recorded videos of the assault. The very next day, the driver of the vehicle, Martin Antony, was arrested and within a week, Sunil NS aka Pulsar Suni, a history sheeter, was arrested. Suni was named as first accused. By the end of the month, four others were arrested and arrayed as accused.

In July, 2017, Dileep was arrested for allegedly conspiring and orchestrating the rape to extract revenge as the survivor actress had informed his now ex-wife about his extramarital affair.

On December 8, the Sessions Court acquitted Dileep of all charges.

It, however, convicted  Pulsar Suni, Martin Antony, Manikandan B, Vijeesh VP, Vadival Salim and Pradeep.

They were found guilty of offences under 120B (criminal conspiracy), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (use of force to outrage modesty of woman), 366 (kidnapping), 354B (use of force to disrobe woman), 357 (use of criminal force to wrongfully confine a person) and 376D (gang rape) of Indian Penal Code.

All six were found guilty of conspiring to commit the offences under Section 66E (capturing, publishing or transmitting the image of a private area of any person without his or her consent) and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act for video recording the sexual assault. However, only Suni was found guilty directly under these two provisions.

On December 12, the Court heard the six men on the question of sentence before ordering that they serve twenty years of rigorous imprisonment for the crime of committing gang rape. Twenty years rigorous imprisonment is the minimum sentence that can be awarded for the offence.

Subsequently, several of the convicts moved the High Court challenging their conviction and seeking to suspend their sentence.