Malayalam actor Siddique gets anticipatory bail from Supreme Court in sexual abuse case

A Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said Malayalam actor Siddique will have to deposit his passport and cooperate with the investigating officer in the probe.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 19, 2024) ordered that Malayalam film actor Siddique, in the event of arrest in a sexual abuse case, should be released on bail subject to the condition that he deposit his passport before the trial court concerned and cooperate with the investigation.

A Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and S.C. Sharma allowed his appeal for relief in the case based on a complaint filed by a woman that she was raped in a hotel by the veteran actor in 2016.

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The court said it did not want to assign any elaborate reasons for reaching its conclusion considering the sensitive nature of the case. However, the Bench referred to the fact that the woman took eight years to file a complaint with the police. Secondly, she had made allegations on Facebook against the actor and others in 2018. Finally, the complainant had not approached the Justice Hema Committee, which was enquiring into allegations of sexual abuse in the Malayalam film industry, with her grievance.

‘Complainant got courage after Hema panel report’

“She had the courage to post on Facebook but not go to the police for eight years?” Justice Trivedi asked during the hearing.

At one point, the court asked if the complaint “still did cinema?”

Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the complainant, said it was Mr. Siddique who approached the woman. There was a huge age disparity between them. Mr. Grover said he had “lured” her, allegedly invited her to a film preview and to a hotel under the pretext of talking about a career in cinema. “It is a case of rape,” Ms. Grover submitted.

Ms. Grover said she had faced a backlash on social media for her Facebook posts, and this had threatened her. She could muster her courage again only after the Justice Hema Committee report was published.

“For a woman to say she was raped by a high-profile man takes courage,” Ms. Grover submitted.

The lawyer urged the court to order custodial interrogation of Mr. Siddique or the trial would suffer.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Mr. Siddique, claimed the woman “had made complaints against all and sundry”. He said his client was 66 years old and a prominent member of the film community.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and advocate Nishe Rajen Shonker, appearing for the Kerala Police, submitted that Mr. Siddique was evasive in his answers during questioning. A Kerala Police report in the apex court had said it was “essential to expose his [Siddique] lie of righteousness before he goes down in history as a hero”. It had said there was a “stockpile of evidence” against Mr. Siddique.

A Special Investigation Team is currently investigating over 30 FIRs registered across Kerala after the Justice Hema Committee report blew the lid off the “shocking and rampant” sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry.

The committee had found that the “general issue faced by women are sexual demands made to women for the very entry into cinema and for getting chances to work in cinema”.

The police report in the apex court had referred to the Justice Hema Committee findings “that many perpetrators are powerful and very influential. The powerful lobby in the film industry is like a mafia since they could do anything according to their whims and fancies. No man or woman dares to utter any word which may offend anyone belonging to the power group”.

Published - November 19, 2024 12:32 pm IST