South actor abducted, assaulted; driver held

A popular woman actor was reportedly abducted and molested in a moving car by a gang of five men near Kochi on Friday night.

Sources said police arrested Martin, a native of Thrissur who drove the film unit vehicle the actor was travelling in, on Saturday. Police, however, refused to confirm the identity of those arrested or divulge details of the incident. Reports said the other four were also involved with film production units.

According to a complaint filed with the Nedumbassery police by the 30-year-old actor, also noted for her films in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, the assault happened at Angamaly around 9 pm as she was returning to Kochi from Thrissur where she was shooting for the sequel to Honey Bee.

Following a minor – and supposedly staged – accident involving another car and an altercation over the incident, three men travelling in the other vehicle got into the actor’s car. It is said they took control of the vehicle and during a two-hour drive in the city, forcibly took revealing photographs of the actor. The gang dropped her near Palarivattom and fled. Martin later dropped the actor at the home of producer-actor Lal. The driver reportedly revealed his involvement to the police during interrogation.

The actor has acted in several Kannada films, including Romeo, Topiwala, Bachchan, Mythri and Mukunda Murari, and has starred alongside stars like Puneeth Rajkumar and Sudeep. She was one among the four heroines in the recently released Chowka.

The actor, who debuted in Malayalam with Nammal (2002), has featured in films like Chronic Bachelor and CID Moosa. Sunil Kumar aka Pulsar Suni, an accused in many criminal cases, has been reportedly identified as the key conspirator in the case.