The Supreme Court on September 17 granted bail to Sunil N.S. alias Pulsar Suni, the main accused in the 2017 sexual assault case in which actor Dileep is the eighth accused. Suni was arrested in February 2017 and has been in jail since then.
An actress, who has worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly sexually assaulted in a moving car by men who forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017. They had also filmed the entire act to blackmail the victim.
A bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal of the Supreme Court passed the order on Suni’s plea challenging the Kerala high court order dismissing his bail plea. The apex court 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. The bench remarked, “Since 261 witnesses have been examined and the case involves nine accused, even recording of statements under section 313 of the CrPC will take a long time.” The court also noted that the co-accused in the case had been granted 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 added.