Kochi doctor lured to flat, assaulted and robbed; actress Athulya Chandra among arrested

Kochi: A 41-year-old doctor was allegedly lured to an apartment in Kochi on the pretext of providing emergency medical care, assaulted, confined and robbed of valuables worth ₹3.25 lakh by a group of people, including film actress Athulya Chandra and actor Bibin Perumpally. The two have been arrested and will be produced before the magistrate, but police are yet to establish the motive behind the incident, which they suspect was planned.

The Kadavanthra Police registered a case based on a complaint filed by the doctor, a resident of Kureekad in Ernakulam. According to the FIR, there are 12 accused persons, with Bibin Perumpally listed as the first accused and Athulya Chandra as the third accused. The remaining accused include an identifiable person and nine unidentified others.

The accused have been booked under non-bailable provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 296(b) (obscene acts and words), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 310 (robbery/dacoity).

According to the complaint, the incident took place between 6.30 pm and 10.30 pm on November 2. The doctor was allegedly summoned by the actress to a third-floor flat at an apartment complex on Junior Janatha Road in Ponnurunni, Vyttila, on the pretext that her maternal aunt of one of the female accused was seriously ill and needed urgent medical attention.

However, upon reaching the apartment, he was allegedly confronted with accusations that he had administered narcotics to the woman’s aunt and sexually assaulted her.

The FIR states that Bibin slapped the doctor on his left cheek, forced him into a chair and repeatedly punched him in the ribs. The second accused allegedly snatched two mobile phones, a smartwatch and a pair of EarPods belonging to the doctor, collectively valued at around ₹3.25 lakh.

Athulya allegedly abused the doctor using vulgar language and threatened to kill him. The other accused confined him inside the room and assaulted him.

The complainant approached the police two days later, citing severe physical pain and fear that the accused would carry out their threats to kill him. Based on the preliminary inquiry, the police took Athulya and Bibin into custody on Thursday morning.

Athulya was most recently seen in director M Padmakumar's crime thriller ‘Uyir’, in which she played Shehna, the wife of Roshan Mathew’s character, Ajeeb Rahman. She has also appeared in Rahul Sadasivan’s ‘Dies Irae’, besides films such as ‘Innale Vare’ and ‘O Baby’. She made her Mollywood debut with the 2019 Mammootty-starrer ‘Gaana Gandharvan’.

Bibin Perumpally, known for playing a cop in Dominic Arun's ‘Lokah’, has appeared in a couple of Malayalam films, including the Indrans-starrer ‘Aashan’ and Antony Pepe-led ‘Kattalan’.

An investigating officer at Kadavanthra police station told Onmanorama that the police had not yet established the complete sequence of events or the motive.

“We haven’t understood the complete picture so far. The accused persons are saying another version of the story. But we are yet to verify that and more details cannot be divulged now,” the officer said, adding that the police had registered the case based on the complainant’s statement.

Asked whether the incident could be part of a honey-trap operation, the officer said no possibility had been ruled out. “We haven’t ruled out a single angle. Based on the statement currently received, we charged the sections that apply,” the officer said.

The officer confirmed that the doctor and the accused had prior acquaintance and that the incident appeared to have been planned. “There is planning, there is acquaintance. We are certain of that much. More details need to be confirmed in the course of investigation,” the officer said.

The police have also not found evidence of the presence of the allegedly ailing woman at the apartment. Asked whether an elderly woman was present when the doctor arrived, the officer said, “It has not come to our understanding that there was one. We haven’t found that there was one.”

The stolen valuables are yet to be recovered. “There are indications as to where they are, who has them, and all. We are investigating,” the officer said.

The police have obtained some leads regarding the remaining suspects and indicated that more arrests were likely.