He had the world at his feet. At 26, Suman Thalwar was already at the peak of his career. Tall and handsome, he was one of the top actors of the Tamil and Telugu screens, earning Rs 5 lakh per film and completely booked up to the end of 1988.

And then, suddenly, the bubble burst. On the night of May 18, a group of policemen arrived at Suman's house, seized some pornographic video tapes and arrested Suman. The charge against him, of course, was far more serious than the mere illegal possession of a few blue films.

Suman was arrested on the basis of far more offensive complaints filed by three young girls claiming that he had abducted, raped and forced them to act in blue films. Overnight, the hero of the film industry became its blackest villain.

Suman was arrested on the basis of complaints filed by three girls claiming that he had aducted, raped and forced them to act in blue films.

To make matters worse, 27-year-old Diwakar - also charged and sentenced in connection with the illegal possession of blue films - substantiated the charges against Suman. In his confessional statement he reportedly indicted the young actor as the brain behind a blue film operation designed to lure young, innocent girls, drug them and strip them for obscene photographs and films.

Events moved very fast after that, On May 21, Madras Police Commissioner S. Sripal ordered Suman's detention under the draconian Goondas Act of 1981, an Act which allows the police to keep a person in jail for a full year without producing him before a magistrate. The police made the arrest non-bailable. On the detention order, the police commissioner clearly wrote "detention of Thiru Suman alias Suman Thalwar, goonda".

But last fortnight, the actor made the first move to prove his alleged innocence. Through senior advocate G. Ramaswamy, who usually represents top DMK functionaries, Suman filed a habeas corpus in the Madras High Court seeking his release and claiming that his detention was mala fide.

A division bench of the court, while admitting the petition, ordered the issue of three weeks notice to the police commissioner and the prohibition and excise secretary, administering authority for the Goondas Act. The case for the prosecution is built on complaints filed by the three girls - Lakshmi, Beena and Sheela - against Suman.

Their stories are more or less the same. Suman offered them a lift home, drugged them and forced them to pose nude for photographs. All three claim to have begged him to return the indecent photographs and one of the girls, Sheela, even claims that when she went to retrieve the offending snaps, Suman took her out in his car and threatened to shoot her.

She jumped out of the car and fled. All three were ultimately forced to file complaints in the police station. Said a top police official: "It was on the basis of the complaints of Lakshmi and Beena that Suman was first arrested on the night of May 18. But on receiving information about Sheela's police complaint, it was decided to detain him under the Goondas Act."

Suman contends that all the charges against him are framed. He claims to have never even seen the girls who had complained about him. The entire film industry seems to be suddenly speaking out in his favour. Said a film source: "Suman is very tall and handsome. It is the young girls who fall for him and not the other way around."

Film producers and directors have built a solid wall of defence around the popular hero. They vouch that on the days when Suman was supposedly abducting and raping different girls, he was, in fact, shooting for his films.

Famous film director L.V. Prasad categorically stated: "Suman was with us shooting from around 9 a.m. (on the day he is said to have met Sheela at 9 p.m.). It was a tight schedule and shooting went on till around 10.30 at night. After that Suman went to see writer Sachiamurthy who was in a private hospital."

Of course the film industry is bound to speak up for Suman since it has a lot at stake in his release. He had at least three dozen films on hand when he was taken into custody. Nearly 10 producers, whose films starring Suman are ready for release, are growing more and more desperate everyday. Many others have paid large signing amounts and advances to the jailed actor. Film circles estimate that at least Rs 7 crore, if not more, is locked up with Suman.

Suman himself is quite aware of his current demand and is shrewdly cashing in on it. He has long sheets to prove his busy shooting schedules just when he was supposed to have accosted the girls.

And argued a friend of Suman: "That girl Lakshmi complains of having been raped on April 20. Why should she have waited till May 10 to complain to the police? Beena says she was assaulted on April 21, and she waits till May 14 to make a police complaint."

The answers are not hard to find. Said a police officer: "We forget that these girls had obscene films of them taken. So naturally they would first try to recover the films. Only when they realised they couldn't, they come to us in sheer despair."

The more obvious question, of course, is if Suman is not guilty why should the police pick on him of all persons. He has an ingenious answer to that too. "The case has been foisted against me," he states in his writ petition, "at the instance of a liquor baron who commands great wealth and an all-pervasive influence over the chief minister of Tamil Nadu as well as the second respondent. the commissioner of police."

According to Suman's story, the liquor baron's daughter apparently eloped with Diwakar a fortnight before he was arrested and Suman was suspected to be in the know. This was the liquor tycoon's revenge.

So, as the case trudges on with its plots and sub-plots and melodramatic twists, all eyes are focussed on Suman Thalwar, the upstaged god of the film industry. As in a suspense film, everyone is waiting to know the final denouement: is Suman the hero or is he the villian?