Kerala actor sex abuse case: Supreme Court grants bail to main accused ‘Pulsar’ Suni

‘Pulsar’ Suni, accused in the actor kidnapping case, appears before the Ernakulam Principal Sessions court on March 14, 2018. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 17, 2024) granted bail to Sunil NS, the main accused in the 2017 case of sexual assault on an actress in a moving car in Kerala.

Also read: An irresponsible act

A bench headed by Justice AS Oka noted that Sunil has been in judicial custody for almost seven years.

The court noted that 261 prosecution witnesses had been summoned in the case. The state of Kerala said it had closed the prosecution’s case by recording the evidence of the prosecution witnesses.

However, senior advocate K. Parameshwar and advocate Sriram Parakkat, for Sunil, said that one of the influential accused, an actor himself, took 81 days to cross-examine a witness. The cross-examination itself ran into 1,800 pages.

Mr Parameshwar said all other accused except him had been released on bail.

“A high-profile accused on bail is given 81 days to cross-examine a witness? There is no concept of fair trial. That is very clear,” Mr. Parameshwar argued.

Senior advocate and litigator Nishe Rajen Shonker argued that Sunil was “the person who committed the crime, who filmed and distributed the act”.

The court noted that recording the interrogation of the suspect under Article 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure would take an unusually long time.

The trial would not be completed in the near future, Justice Oka noted, while restraining Sunil on bail until the matter was disposed of by the court.

The court has ruled that the court must impose strict conditions on the suspect’s bail.

Sunil has complained that the past few years have seen many twists in the trial. One of the accused was an actor, Dileep. The trial itself should not become a punishment.

The Supreme Court had rejected the bail of Sunil, also known as Pulsar Suni, in April last year.

The Supreme Court has extended the deadline for completing the trial in this case several times.

In August last year, the Supreme Court gave time until March 31, 2024, to complete the process. The process had missed two previous deadlines set by the Supreme Court, January 31, 2022, and July 31, 2023.

The sexual abuse case had led to public outrage. The collective of women actors from the Kerala film industry had leveled allegations of exploitation and demanded a fair probe. The state government had set up a commission in 2017 under the chairmanship of a former Kerala High Court judge, Justice K. Hemam.

The commission’s redacted report, made public on August 19, 2024, has caused a stir by exposing cases of discrimination, sexual exploitation and nepotism within the state-run film industry.