Actor assault case: Sessions court grants bail to Pulsar Suni, likely to be released today

Ernakulam: The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court on Friday granted bail to Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the 2017 actor assault case. The bail conditions include a bond of Rs 1 lakh and personal surety. 

Additional bail conditions include:  
1. Use of only one SIM card  
2. Prohibition on travelling outside the limit of the court 
3. No communication with other accused individuals in the case  
4. No attempts to influence any witnesses in the case
5. Ban on media interaction. 

After completing the necessary procedures, he is expected to be released by Friday evening. The Supreme Court granted him bail on September 17, instructing the sessions court to establish the terms and conditions of his release.

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.

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 and advised 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.