The actor assault case and Kerala’s unyielding patriarchy

On 8 December 2025, the Kerala High Court delivered its judgment in an eight-year-long case involving the sexual assault of a South Indian film actor. It convicted six people of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and gang rape, among other charges, but acquitted the Malayalam film superstar Dileep, rejecting the prosecution’s claim that he masterminded the attack. The case makes visible the experience of a survivor forced to confront not just the crime committed against her but also procedural barriers within the justice system that seem set up to shield the powerful and well-connected. 

On 17 February 2017, the female actor was travelling between Thrissur and Kochi when a group of six men forcibly stopped her vehicle, abducted her and sexually assaulted her inside a moving car, with the attack recorded on a mobile device. After the assault, she was dropped outside a film director’s residence. The following day, she filed a police complaint naming one of the assailants, Sunil N S, also known as Pulsar Suni, a driver associated with the film industry.