The Kerala Police on Saturday booked Malayalam actor and former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi after a controversy erupted over his interaction with a journalist in Kozhikode on Friday, when he twice put his hand on her shoulder while answering her questions. The Kozhikode city police registered the case under IPC section 354A, which deals with sexual harassment, based on the journalist’s complaint. The incident took place when the actor-turned-politician was taking questions from reporters in Kozhikode. When the woman asked him a question, he put a hand on her shoulder and called her “mole (daughter)” as he began his answer. She then backed away, but when she later asked another question, he again placed his hand on her shoulder, at which point she pushed it away. After the incident sparked a controversy, Gopi issued an apology on Saturday, and said in a Facebook post that he was behaving in “an affectionate manner” towards the journalist. “If she felt bad about my behaviour, her feelings should be respected. I tender an apology towards her if she had felt badly about my behaviour. Sorry…,” he said. The journalist said Gopi’s statement seemed more like an “explanation” than an apology. She said she was distressed by Gopi’s behaviour and that she would take legal action. The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) said Gopi’s actions were unacceptable and “an insult to all working women”. Acting on complaints from the journalist and the KUWJ, the Kerala Women’s Commission asked police to furnish a probe report within 15 days. Recounting the incident in a video on Saturday, the journalist said: “.I asked about him contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and about the BJP’s failure in making significant political gains in Kerala when he ran his hand through my shoulder, calling me mole (daughter). I was initially shocked, but withdrew to avoid his hand. Since I was on duty and had more questions, I came back when he responded again with touch.” “I couldn't tolerate it and was distressed, and reacted by pushing his arm away. I was there on duty, to talk to a politician – not for a friendly conversation. Later I was traumatised about the whole episode…Women have been facing this and may face this in the future also. I had to address it as a woman journalist who has been working for over 15 years. Hence, I decided to go for legal recourse,” she said. State Women’s Commission chairperson and former CPI(M) MP P Sathidevi said the commission viewed the issue very seriously. “It is up to the woman who faced the insult whether to accept the apology or not,” she said. The BJP, however, rallied behind Gopi. Senior party leader Sobha Surendran alleged a political agenda behind the registering of the case against Gopi. “The issue should have ended with Gopi tendering an apology. The issue has got politicised,” she said. BJP’s Kerala spokesperson Sandeep Vaachaspathi said the KUWJ’s reaction to the incident came at the behest of the state’s ruling CPI(M). “People know Suresh Gopi. The attempt to politically annihilate him will not succeed. The KUWJ state committee includes an alleged accused in a sexual harassment case. The statement of that committee, demanding an apology from Suresh Gopi, is an insult to the state’s cultural arena,” he said.
