Hema Commission Report: Kerala Police SIT to Take Legal Action in Over 20 Serious Allegations

SIT takes legal action based on allegations in Hema committee report. (iStock)

Meanwhile, they are also preparing to file cases under the POCSO (Prevention of Child Abuse) Act for disclosures that fall within the purview of the law, without requiring victims to re-record their statements.

The original report of the Hema committee is 3,896 pages long, while the RTI applicants were given only 296 pages. The SIT will seek help from the Department of Culture or members of the Hema committee to identify those who have not revealed their identities.

Although the recorded statements were shared with the investigation team, they were not allowed to make copies of the document.

Supreme Court Orders

On September 10, the Kerala High Court sharply criticised the state government for its lack of action on the report for years.

During the same hearing, the Supreme Court ordered the Kerala government to hand over the full, uncensored report to the SIT.

“Why was immediate action not taken on the Hema Commission report?” the special bench comprising Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice CS Sudha asked on September 10.

The seven-member SIT was formed on August 30 and is headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Poonguzhali.

The commission, which was set up after the actress’s 2017 case to investigate complaints of sexual exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry, gave its report to the state in 2019. However, the state did not act on it for four years or even published it, until the Supreme Court ordered it to do so.

Also read: Kerala HC criticizes state for years of failure to act on Hema commission report

(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula, with inputs from Sreelakshmi Soman)