Kerala Police Is "Cooking Up Stories": Actor Siddique On Sex Assault Case

Malayalam actor Siddique, whose interim anticipatory bail granted by the Supreme Court on alleged charges of raping a young actress is ending soon, has accused the Kerala Police of "cooking up baseless stories" about him in the case.

In his affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, Siddique argues that he was made an accused without conducting a proper probe and contends that the police probe team is raising issues that even the actress who filed the complaint against him has not raised.

The actor also accused the police of creating a scenario for a "media trial" against him based on baseless allegations against him.

Siddique also sought to bring to the attention of the court that he is not at all a "powerful personality" and is one who has done a huge majority of his roles as a supporting actor only.

The Supreme Court had last month extended, for two weeks, the interim anticipatory bail to Siddique.

A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and S.C. Sharma decided to extend the interim relief after Siddique's counsel sought time to file rejoinder arguments to the status report filed by the Kerala Police.

The apex court, without entering into the contentions raised, adjourned the hearing for two weeks and in the meantime, ordered an extension of interim relief.

In an earlier order passed on September 30, the Supreme Court issued notice on Siddique's plea for anticipatory bail and granted him interim pre-arrest bail.

A police case against Siddique was registered based on a complaint by an actress who accused him of raping her in a state-owned hotel in Thiruvananthapuram in 2016. The actress, who initially hesitated to file a police complaint, later emailed the state police chief alleging that Siddique raped her after she refused to give in to his demands for sexual favours in exchange for a role in a Tamil movie.

When this revelation came, Siddique, who was recently elected as the General Secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), quit the post. After that, the entire Executive Committee, chaired by President Mohanlal, also resigned.

Siddique had contended that this particular actress had been harassing him since 2019 by making repeated claims on social media that he tried to molest her at a theatre in 2016, and after the Justice Hema Committee report was published, she made a more serious allegation of rape at a different place in the same year.

Trouble began for Siddique when on September 24, the Kerala High Court rejected his anticipatory bail. In a few hours, Siddique went missing and police were unable to trace and arrest him. He re-surfaced after September 30 when the apex court granted him bail and asked him to present himself before the probe team.

In the wake of the explosive Justice Hema Committee report on the condition of women in the Malayalam film industry, released in August, a storm of allegations was unleashed against its leading figures. As a few former actresses publicly revealed their bad experiences, police were quick to act, registering numerous FIRs against various film personalities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)