Mollywood MeToo: Actor Siddique's Interim Protection From Arrest Extended

The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the interim protection from arrest granted to Malayalam film actor Siddique in an alleged rape case. A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma extended its interim order of September 30 in which it granted him interim protection from arrest in the case and directed him to cooperate in the investigation.

The bench passed the order after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Mr Siddique, said he had a bad throat and sought some time to argue the matter.

At the outset, Mr Rohatgi said the investigating agency is repeatedly asking the actor about his phone and laptop which he had in 2016 but does not have it now. He said Mr Siddique has met the complainant only once and the probe agency is also seeking his passport and Aadhaar number.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Kerala Police, said Mr Siddique has been appearing before it but is not cooperating in the probe and giving evasive replies.

On October 22, the top court extended the interim protection from arrest for two weeks. A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma allowed Siddique to file his rejoinder affidavit to the status report filed by Kerala Police, which alleged a lack of cooperation in the investigation on his part.

Mr Siddique had earlier sought time to file a rejoinder affidavit to the status report filed by Kerala Police and claimed that he has been cooperating with the police's investigation. Kerala Police, in its status report, alleged that the veteran actor was hindering the investigation and had destroyed electronic devices besides deleting social media accounts. 

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