The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique, who is accused in a rape charges levelled by a young actor. A bench comprising Justice Bela Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma granted the bail ‘without elaborate reason considering the sensitivity of the case’.
Siddique granted relief on the condition that he deposit the passport before the trial court. He is also directed to cooperate with the investigation. The apex court also added that the trial court is free to set other conditions for the anticipatory bail.
According to LiveLaw, the bench observed, “ 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.”
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted that Siddique had filed a complaint a day before the victim did against him. He said that the complainant, a member of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) had friction with the Association of Malayalam Movie Actors(AMMA) of which Siddique was an office bearer. He further added that the woman filed the complaint against Siddique due to the said ‘friction’.
Meanwhile, the young actor alleged that Siddique sexually exploited her in 2016 when she met her in a hotel room after he offered her opportunities in cinema. She filed a complaint following the publication of the Justice Hema Committee report regarding the exploitations faced by women in Malayalam cinema. The case was registered on August 27 by Museum Police in Thiruvananthapuram.
Siddique has been charged under Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code in 2024. He sought interim relief but the Kerala court rejected his anticipatory bail plea on September 24, 2024. However, the apex court granted him protection from arrest on September 30, 2024.
