Kerala Actor’s First Post After Assault Case Verdict Questions Trial Court Process

Nearly a week after the verdict in the Kerala actor assault case, the actor at the centre of the proceedings has issued her first public statement, sharply criticising the conduct of the trial court and saying she had lost confidence in the process years before the judgment was delivered.

In a social media post, she said the verdict did not come as a surprise to her, describing it instead as the outcome of “years of pain, tears and emotional struggle”. “Not every citizen in this country is treated equally before the law,” she wrote, calling it a deeply painful realisation.

On December 8, the Principal District and Sessions Court in Ernakulam convicted six people for abducting and sexually assaulting the actor, while acquitting actor Dileep, who had been charged as the eighth accused and alleged to have masterminded the crime. The verdict was delivered by judge Honey M Varghese.

“This verdict may surprise many people, but it did not surprise me,” the actor wrote. She said she began to feel as early as 2020 that something was not right with the way the case was being handled. According to her, even the prosecution had flagged changes in the court’s approach, particularly in relation to one accused.

Although the case had initially been assigned to the current judge following a request for a woman judge, the years that followed, she said, were marked by what she described as hostility from the court towards both the prosecution and herself.

In a statement issued on December 14, she listed six reasons for losing faith in the trial court. Chief among them was the handling of key evidence. She said her fundamental rights were not protected, pointing to the memory card — described as the most crucial piece of evidence — being illegally accessed three times while it was in court custody. She also referred to the resignation of two public prosecutors from the case, both of whom, she said, cited a hostile court environment and concerns about bias. According to her, the prosecutors personally warned her not to expect justice from the court.

The actor said she repeatedly sought a proper investigation into the alleged tampering of the memory card but was not provided the investigation report until she pressed for it repeatedly. She added that her concerns deepened when the accused filed a petition requesting that the same judge continue to hear the case. She said she wrote to the President and the Prime Minister of India, outlining her concerns and seeking intervention. A request to conduct proceedings in open court, allowing the public and media to observe the hearings, was also denied, she said.

“Over the years, I approached the High Court and the Supreme Court multiple times, clearly stating that I did not trust this court,” she wrote. Every request to have the case moved away from the same judge was dismissed, she added.

Reflecting on the outcome, she said the verdict had reinforced her understanding of how strongly human judgement could shape decisions. At the same time, she noted that she did not believe all courts functioned in the same way.

She also used the statement to address what she described as false narratives circulating online about one of the convicted accused, clarifying that he was neither her employee nor someone she knew personally, and that she had met him only briefly years earlier during a film shoot. The statement concluded with a note of gratitude to those who stood by her, alongside a sharp response to continued online abuse, which she described as driven by paid narratives.