Kerala High Court denies anticipatory bail to actor Siddique in rape case

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday refused to grant anticipatory bail to Malayalam cine actor Siddique in a rape case filed against him by an actress.

Justice CS Dias pronounced the order this morning.

The allegations against the actor were made after the public release of the Justice K Hema Committee Report on August 19 this year.

The report revealed large-scale sexual abuse, 'casting couch' practices, and entrenched gender discrimination in the Malayalam film industry.

The publication of the redacted report has led to a wave of sexual abuse allegations against several actors, directors and other film personalities.

The case against Siddique was registered based on a complaint by an actress who accused him of raping her at the Mascot 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 favors in exchange for a role in a Tamil movie.

The investigation into this case is being handled by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the sexual abuse cases emerging after the publication of the Justice Hema Committee report.

In his petition seeking anticipatory bail, Siddique has claimed that the woman complainant has been harassing him since 2019 by making repeated claims on social media that he tried to sexually misbehave with her at a theatre in 2016.

However, she has now made a more serious allegation of rape at a different place in the same year, the plea stated.

"It is clear that the defacto complainant is made aware that simple allegation of attempted sexual assault is bailable offence, and therefore, the petitioner could not be taken into custody and it is in order to make out a case warranting arrest and detention of the petitioner that the defacto complainant has now come up with an allegation of rape," Siddique's petition read.

This change in narrative shows that the complainant is deliberately attempting to implicate him in a false case, the actor contended.

The allegations have several inconsistencies and were made after considerable delay, he added.

He also asserted that his custodial interrogation is completely unnecessary for the collection of evidence in this case.

Siddique was represented by Senior Advocate B Raman Pillai and advocates Philip T Varghese and Sujesh Menon VB.