Supreme Court Extends Interim Protection From Arrest To Actor Siddique In Alleged Rape Case

When the bench comprising Justices Bela Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asked whether the petitioner was appearing before the investigating officer, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, for the State, submitted that though he was appearing, he was not cooperating with the investigation and was giving evasive responses.

This comes a day after Siddique, on Monday, accused the Kerala Police of “cooking up baseless stories" about him in the case.

In his affidavit filed in the top court, Siddique argued that he was made an accused without conducting a proper probe, and contended that the police probe team is raising issues which even the actress who filed the complaint against him has not raised.

The actor also accused the police of creating a scenario for a “media trial" against him on the baseless allegations against him.

Siddique also sought to bring to the attention of the court that he is not at all a “powerful personality" and has done a huge majority of his roles as a supporting actor only.

Actor Siddique is accused of raping a young actress at a Thiruvananthapuram hotel.

THE PREVIOUS HEARING

On October 22, the bench extended the interim anticipatory bail granted to actor Siddique on September 30 for another two weeks, after senior advocate V Giri, for Siddique, sought time to file a rejoinder to the status report filed by the Kerala Police opposing his petition. He added that after the court’s interim order, Siddique appeared before the investigating officer.

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, for the State of Kerala, submitted that Siddique was not cooperating with the investigation and was destroying the evidence.

When Justice Trivedi pointed out that the complaint was filed by the victim eight years after the alleged incident, Ranjit Kumar explained the developments related to the Justice Hema Committee’s report on the abuses faced by women in the Malayalam cinema industry.

Kumar submitted that the victim mustered the courage to come out with the allegations following the publication of the Hema Committee report and requested the court to understand the delay in the filing of the First Information Report (FIR) in the case.

The young actress alleged that Siddique sexually exploited her in 2016 when she met him in a hotel room after he offered her opportunities in the film industry. This was after the publication of the Justice Hema Committee report regarding the exploitations faced by women in Malayalam cinema.