NEW Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique in a rape case. A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said the veteran actor will have to deposit his passport and cooperate with the investigating officer in the probe. The top court also took note of the fact that the complaint in the case was filed in August, eight years after the alleged incident took place in 2016.
On September 30, the court granted Siddique interim protection from arrest in the case. Kerala Police has alleged lack of cooperation on the part of Siddique in the investigation. In its status report, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kerala Police has alleged that the veteran actor is hindering the investigation and has destroyed electronic devices besides deleting his social media accounts.
On September 24, the Kerala High Court rejected Siddique's anticipatory bail plea in the rape case, saying in view of the seriousness of the accusations, his custodial interrogation was inevitable for a proper investigation of the crime..