Thiruvananthapuram: The prime accused in the Kerala actress kidnap and assault case was taken into custody on Thursday.
Police said Sunil Kumar alias Pulsar Suni surrendered to the police outside a court here. Following this both the accused, Kumar and Vijesh, were arrested by the Kerala police.
However, unconfirmed reports said that he was arrested by the police as he was trying get inside the court to surrender.
The incident reportedly occurred on Friday night when the actress was travelling from Thrissur to Ernakulam.
Sources said a tempo-traveler rammed into the vehicle in which she travelling. When the driver of the actress’s car got down after the collision, two men entered the car and assaulted her and tried to click pictures. They then drove the actress towards Ernakulam for the next half an hour, sources said.
Loknath Behra, Kerala State Police Chief told News18 that all efforts were made to nab the accused.
On Sunday, police arrested the actress’s driver on suspicion of colluding with the attackers. They suspected a gang, led by the actress’s former driver, Kumar, to be behind the attack.
Top police sources say the driver had been planning this “for months” and had not targeted the victim, but wanted to attack any actor using the film production company’s vehicle.
A case had been registered under Sections 376 (rape), 365 (kidnap), 120b (criminal conspiracy), 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the IT Act.
Meanwhile, in a Facebook post, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said attacks on women “would not be tolerated”. “No accused in this case will escape the law. The police are after the accused. They will be booked and all efforts will be made to ensure maximum punishment. This is something that should not have happened,” he said.
“The police and government will take every step to book the culprits. I don’t want to create a political controversy. Entire Kerala is in a shock. We must take this as a warning,” former CM Oommen Chandy told CNN-News18.
Prominent actors of the Malayalam film industry, too, have made spoken out against the incident on social media.
“It is most unfortunate to hear about this atrocity perpetrated on a Lady. Such acts should not only be condemned vehemently by one and all but exemplary punishment should be handed out to these criminals who are worse than animals so that it serves as a lesson to similar minded characters who I will not even term as humans,” wrote actor Mohanlal in Facebook.
The Malayalam film fraternity, assembled under the banner of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), took an oath of unity, expressing solidarity with the actress.
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