New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique in a rape case against him based on allegations levelled by a young actor. The Apex Court noted that the complainant hadn’t gone to the police for 8 years and had not reported the alleged assault to the Hema Committee either. A bench comprising Justice Bela Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma made the interim anticipatory bail, granted on September 30, absolute.
However, the court asked the actor to cooperate in the investigation and surrender his passport with the trial court. "We deem it appropriate not to assign elaborate reasons, particularly considering the sensitivity of the case. However, considering the fact that the complainant had filed the complaint almost eight years after the alleged incident which had taken place in 2016 and the complainant had also posted the posts on Facebook somewhere in 2018 making allegations about 14 people including the appellant with regard to the alleged sexual abuse and also the fact that she had not gone to the Hema Committee, which was set up by the Government of Kerala, we are inclined to accept the present appeal," the bench observed in the order.
An FIR was filed against Siddique in connection with the sexual assault allegations by an actress in August this year. The allegation was raised by the actress after the release of the Hema Committee report which exposed widespread sexual harassment and exploitation in the Malayalam film industry.