Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 6, 2024
A court in the Kerala capital on Friday granted bail to actor Siddique after the state police’s special investigation team recorded his arrest in the case filed on an actress’ complaint that she was raped by him some years back.
The court directed the actor to submit his passport, told him to cooperate with the probe and provide a Rs one lakh surety.
The Supreme Court had in N November granted him anticipatory bail with a directive stating that he should appear before the police whenever asked and also stated that if his arrest has to be recorded, he must be let off on bail.
Siddique presented himself before the police team on Friday and after questioning, his arrest was recorded and after the mandatory procedures, he was produced before the court.
The police submitted before the court that the actor was not cooperating with the probe and informed the court that they would need to question him again.
A police case against Siddique was registered based on a complaint by an actress who accused him of raping her in a state-owned 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 favours in exchange for a role in a Tamil movie.
When this revelation came, Siddique, who was recently elected as the General Secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), quit the post.
After that, the entire Executive Committee, chaired by President Mohanlal, also resigned.
Siddique had contended that this particular actress had been harassing him since 2019 by making repeated claims on social media that he tried to molest her at a theatre in 2016, and after the Justice Hema Committee report was published, she made a more serious allegation of rape at a different place in the same year.
Trouble began for Siddique when on September 24, the Kerala High Court rejected his anticipatory bail. Within a few hours, Siddique went missing and police were unable to trace and arrest him. He re-surfaced after September 30 when the apex court granted him bail and asked him to present himself before the probe team.
In the wake of the explosive Justice Hema Committee report on the condition of women in the Malayalam film industry, released in August, a storm of allegations was unleashed against its leading figures. As a few former actresses publicly revealed their bad experiences, police were quick to act, registering 11 FIRs against various film personalities.(Agency)
