SC gives bail to main accused in Kerala actor's sex assault case

NEW DELHI/KOCHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sunil NS aka Pulsar Suni , main accused in the 2017 actor assault case in which actor Dileep is the eighth accused.

He was arrested in Feb 2017 and has remained in jail since then. An actor, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly sexually assaulted in a moving car by men who forced their way into the vehicle on the night of Feb 17, 2017. They had also filmed the entire act to blackmail the actor.

A bench of Justices A S Oka and Pankaj Mithal gave the order on Suni's plea challenging the Kerala HC order dismissing his bail application . It considered his long incarceration of over seven-and-a-half years and the fact that the trial was not likely to conclude within a "reasonable" time. "Since 261 witnesses have been examined and the case involves nine accused, even recording of statements under CrPC Section 313 will take a long time," it said.

The court also noted that co-accused in the case had been given bail. It said Suni should be produced before the trial court within a week for imposition of bail conditions for his release. The prosecution could argue before the trial court for stringent conditions to be imposed for his release on bail, it said.

UDF MLA Uma Thomas , her husband late PT Thomas had played a key role in bringing the incident to light, said prosecution's failure had led to Suni getting bail.