The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim
protection from arrest to Malayalam film actor Siddique in a rape case.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish
Chandra Sharma issued notice to the Kerala government and the victim in the
case during the hearing of a plea by Siddique challenging a Kerala High Court
order which denied him anticipatory bail.
At the outset, the top court asked senior advocate
Vrinda Grover, appearing for the victim, about the reason for the delay in
registering the complaint against the actor.
The lawyer told the bench that the Justice Hema
Committee report, which exposed the shocking harassment and sexual exploitation
faced by women in the Malayalam film industry, has to be understood in the
larger context.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for
Siddique, submitted that a complaint was lodged in 2024 after a lapse of eight
years.
On September 24, the high court had rejected the
anticipatory bail plea of Siddique in the rape case, saying that in view of the
seriousness of the accusations he was facing, his custodial interrogation was
inevitable for proper investigation of the crime.
Siddique, who was booked
for offences under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC), has claimed in his plea that the complainant female
actor had subjected him to a "prolonged campaign of harassment and false accusations
since 2019".
Multiple FIRs have been
registered against many high-profile Malayalam film personalities following
allegations of sexual harassment against them in the wake of revelations made
in the Justice K Hema Committee report.