New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the 2017 actor assault case. Sunil N S alias Pulsar Suni has been in jail since February 2017 for abducting and sexually assaulting a popular Malayalam female actor, allegedly at the behest of actor Dileep, who is another accused in the case. Suni earlier claimed that Dileep was the mastermind of the case.

A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal passed the order on Tuesday and ordered that Suni be produced before the trial court within a week for his release on bail. It was the second time the apex court considered Suni’s bail plea. The bench also noted that the state could request the trial court to impose strict bail conditions before Suni is released.

The court said it had noted the manner in which the trial progressed. "Since 261 witnesses have been examined and the case involves nine accused, even recording statements under section 313 of the CrPC will take a long time. Considering the long incarceration and the fact that the trial is not likely to conclude within a reasonable time, a case is made out for enlarging the appellant on bail," the court said in the order. 

Senior advocate K Parameshwar and advocates Sriram Parakkat and Satheesh Mohanan appeared for Suni on Tuesday. Suni was granted a one-day temporary bail in April 2023 to perform his father's last rites.

Suni first sought bail from the Kerala High Court in March 2022, but his plea was rejected. He then approached the Supreme Court, which declined to grant bail in July 2022, advising him to reapply if the trial was delayed.

The High Court rejected Suni's second bail plea in March 2023 due to the severity of the charges. After challenging this verdict, the Supreme Court denied him bail again in April 2023. On June 3, the High Court dismissed his tenth bail plea, imposing Rs 25,000 in costs. This was appealed, and the apex court later stayed the costs.

The survivor, who has worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some persons who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017, and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by those persons to blackmail the actress. There are 10 accused in the assault case, including actor Dileep, and police have arrested seven. Dileep was subsequently detained and jailed for nearly six months for his alleged links with the gang.

The current verdict came nearly a month after the Hema Committee Report, documenting challenges faced by Malayalam film industry workers, including sexual exploitation and abuse at the workplace, was made available to the RTI applicants. The Kerala government constituted the Justice Hema Committee in 2019 to analyse the issues faced by women in the Malayalam cinema industry following a petition by the Women in Cinema Collective in response to the 2017 actor assault case.