Kerala actor Sidhique, accused of rape, approaches Supreme Court over denial of bail

The Supreme Court has rejected Sidhique’s anticipatory bail plea in a rape case

New Delhi:

Malayalam film actor Sidhique on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Kerala High Court’s order denying him interim bail in a rape case.

According to the Supreme Court website, Sidhique has filed a case in the High Court through his lawyer Ranjeeta Rohatgi.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Sidhique’s anticipatory bail plea in a rape case against him, saying that given the seriousness of the charges he faced, questioning him in custody was inevitable for a proper investigation into the crime.

The court said Sidhique’s defence was “a total denial of the incident”, his potency test had yet to be conducted and there was a “reasonable fear” that he would intimidate witnesses and tamper with evidence. “Therefore, it was not appropriate to exercise the court’s discretionary powers” to grant him the injunction.

However, the Supreme Court made it clear that the observations it made in the order should not be construed as a reflection on the merits of the case.

Sidhique, who was arrested for violating Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Penal Code, alleged in his petition that the accusing actress had subjected him to a “sustained campaign of harassment and false accusations” since 2019.

In his application for interim bail before the Supreme Court, he alleged that she had made repeated unsubstantiated and false allegations over the past five years about sexual misconduct and “verbal sexual offers” from him at a theatre in 2016.

“But now she has made a completely contradictory allegation about a more serious rape offence at another location in the same year,” he had said in his petition.

He also felt that there was an excessive delay in filing a complaint against him.

The victim’s lawyer opposed the bail plea, telling the high court that the state police allegedly failed to conduct proper investigation and allowed themselves to be influenced by the actor by not arresting him or collecting the electronic evidence.

The victim also argued that Sidhique’s interrogation while in custody was necessary because he had committed “a heinous crime”.

The Public Prosecution Service also opposed the request for provisional bail, arguing that the investigation was still in its “early stages” and that there was “a stock of evidence against the plaintiff-actor”.

It was further alleged that if Sidhique was granted bail before being arrested, he would manipulate evidence and threaten witnesses because of “his influence and leverage”.

The Public Prosecution Service had argued that the actor’s interrogation was “necessary to investigate the crime, in particular his potency test, which had to be carried out invariably”.

The Supreme Court had rejected the actor’s arguments, including the delay in filing a complaint. According to the court, “victims of sexual abuse and assault may experience psychological, emotional and social barriers that compound the delay in reporting the matter, which must necessarily be understood in the context of the trauma.”

The court also noted that though the Justice Hema committee had submitted its report to the state government in 2019, “the government had maintained a sphinx-like silence for five years”.

“Ultimately, it was only through the intervention of this court that the report saw the light of day,” the report said.

Sidhique had resigned as General Secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) following the allegations levelled against him by the female actor.

Several FIRs have been registered against many well-known Malayalam film personalities, following allegations of sexual harassment against several directors and actors, in the wake of revelations in the Justice K Hema Committee report.

The commission was set up by the Kerala government following the 2017 sexual assault case of an actress and the report that exposed cases of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry.

After allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation were made against several actors and directors, the state government on August 25 announced the formation of a seven-member special investigation team to probe the allegations.

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