Long List Of Cases
- Nine cases of cheating, burglary and robbery against him across Kerala
- Driver of prominent actors and various production managers for years together
- Case against him for possession of narcotics
- Known in certain circles as ‘joint director’ for supplying drugs
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Petty criminal Sunil Kumar (in pic) the leader of a motley gang of six that abducted and molested a South Indian actress in Kochi has become the face of all that is rotten in the Malayalam film industry. Sunil Kumar’s craze for bikes earned him the moniker Pulsar. Besides, he’s believed to have begun his career in crime, stealing Pulsar bikes. Even as he advanced his petty criminal career by cheating and stealing, Suni had also managed to sidle into Mollywood, with particular ease, as the driver of many of the Malayalam actors and producers. Curiously, none seemed to have checked his background and even after some actors’ came to learn that he had a criminal bent of mind, the film industry remained unmindful of it, facilitating his hopping around from one actor to the next.
Five years ago, as the personal driver to the producer of Sagarika Films, Suni had attempted to abduct senior actor Menaka when she came to Kochi for a shoot, but his plan came to a naught. Suni picked up Menaka from the Ernakulam railway station in a tempo traveller, saying he was sent from a five-star hotel in the city. Instead of dropping her off, he kept going round in circles on the highway. Menaka got suspicious and called up her husband and producer G. Suresh Kumar. Kumar immediately notified the producer of the film; so Menaka was dropped off abruptly outside the gates of the hotel, where she found no room booked on her behalf. Kumar did complain to the police, but no action followed—Suni had simply switched off his phone and disappeared. Kumar didn’t persist with the case.
Actor Mukesh, MLA, who was unaware of this incident, employed Suni as a driver for more than a year and but dismissed him after an altercation the employee had with another car driver. Though he did not have the identity card under the Film Employees Federation of Kerala, Suni was employed as the personal driver of the production manager of Lal Creations, the producers of Honey Bee 2. In that capacity, Suni had taken the actress (one who he later abducted) to Goa for the shooting of the film. He was there in the Konkan state for a month.
There is also a rumour doing the rounds that Suni was supplying drugs to the cinema world and he was referred to as the ‘joint director’. There is a case against him for possessing and selling narcotics. An examination of Suni’s call records found he had numerous girlfriends, who he would call using multiple sim cards. One girlfriend’s spouse was informed by the police of the relationship. In fact, the sim card Suni was using was registered under the name of his lover’s husband. It is believed he had a way with women and he would brag to them that he could get them roles in films.
On February 17 night, it was another driver at Lal Creations who drove the actress from Thrissur to Kochi after shooting for Honey Bee 2. And he, Martin Anthony, was promised Rs 30 lakhs by Suni. Martin tipped Suni of the actor’s journey and helped him execute the plan. After she was abducted and molested, the actress’s nude pictures were shot—and she was let off near director/actor Lal’s house. Lal contacted the police, after which producer Anto Joseph who came there with the local legislator P.T. Thomas. Strangely, the police asked Anto to ring Suni that night. The call seems to have alerted Suni, for he immediately switched off his mobile phone.
There were six phone calls between Suni and people in the film industry the day he committed the crime. Even as the police were hunting for him, the 30-year-old and two of his friends appeared at the house of an advocate to move the court for anticipatory bail—only to be nabbed. The other gangsters, too, are petty criminals: Vadival Salim, V.P. Vijeesh, Manikandan, Pradeep and driver Martin (a first-time offender). All six of them have been arrested.
