Malayalam actor Siddique moves Supreme Court for anticipatory bail in rape case

Malayalam cine actor Siddique has moved the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail in connection with a rape case filed against him by an actress [Siddique v State of Kerala].

The Kerala High Court had on Tuesday refused to grant him pre-arrest bail, leading to the instant appeal before the apex court through advocate Ranjeeta Rohatgi.

The High Court had opined that the material placed on record prima facie showed that Siddique may be involved in the crime.

It had noted that his defence was one of total denial of the incident, which makes it reasonable to apprehend that the powerful actor may attempt to influence witnesses.

Custodial interrogation of the actor is inevitable for a proper investigation of the case, it added.

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 before the High Court, Siddique 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.

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