SC grants interim protection from arrest to Malayalam actor Siddique in rape case

Subsequently, the woman filed a complaint with Thiruvananthapuram city police and an FIR was registered under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. According to the complaint, the alleged crime occurred in 2016 at a Thiruvananthapuram hotel. The police had collected various pieces of evidence from hotel records which prima facie substantiated the woman’s allegation.

Siddique has denied the allegations, calling it a “criminal conspiracy to tarnish the reputation of the entire Malayalam film industry”.

After the Hema committee report was released last month, a couple of women had filed sexual harassment or rape cases against various professionals in the film industry. Except for Siddique, all of them got anticipatory bail.

The actor contended before the Kerala High Court that the delay in FIR registration was fatal but the high court said that that cannot be a ground for scrapping the entire complaint.

“Whether the survivor’s above explanation is plausible will have to be ultimately evaluated and decided after a full-fledged trial. Nevertheless, the contention that the above delay vitiates the entire prosecution case is not a ground for scraping the complaint, particularly while considering a bail application. Victims of sexual abuse and assault may experience psychological, emotional and social barriers that feed the delay in reporting the matter, which necessarily has to be understood in the context of the trauma,” the high court said.