Kerala Actor-Politician Appears Before Cops Over Woman Reporter's Complaint

Actor-politician Suresh Gopi appeared before the police here on Wednesday to record his statement in a case pertaining to a complaint filed by a woman journalist stating that he misbehaved with her during his interaction with reporters here last month.

The actor was summoned by police to appear before the investigating officer at Nadakkavu police station and he arrived at around 11.45 am.

Terming the police action as "politically motivated," senior BJP leaders in Kerala including the party's state chief K Surendran marched to the station in protest against the same.

The BJP leaders were accompanied by hundreds of party supporters, including a large number of women, who were carrying placards in support of the actor.

Additionally, people also gathered in large numbers outside the station since morning awaiting the arrival of the actor.

The crowd outside the station was big, it became difficult for Mr Gopi's vehicle to enfer the station.

Mr Surendran, speaking to reporters, said that Gopi was "targeted" when he started speaking out against the alleged "injustices and illegalities" of the ruling CPI(M) in the state.

The BJP state chief alleged that the "political hunt" of the actor began after he intervened in the multi-crore Karuvannur cooperative bank scam.

"This is an agenda of the government and Pinarayi Vijayan. If the action is not withdrawn, protests would be held across the state," he contended.

Meanwhile, police were deployed in large numbers to prevent any untoward incident in view of the huge crowd of BJP supporters and fans of the actor who turned up outside the Nadakkavu police station.

Nadakkavu Police registered the case late last month based on the complaint of the journalist who works with a local television channel.

She lodged the complaint along with a video said to be of the incident with the city police commissioner, who, in turn, handed it over to the local police station for further action.

The former BJP Rajya Sabha member landed in trouble after a video surfaced online in which he is seen placing his hand on the shoulder of the journalist, who pushed it away twice, during a media interaction.

Facing intense criticism from various quarters, the actor tendered an apology, saying he only treated the journalist with affection.

Despite his apology, criticism from various quarters pointed out that his behaviour had been inappropriate. 

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