‘Victim posted on FB in 2018 but did not file complaint until 2024’: SC grants anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique in rape case

As per the prosecution, Siddique tactfully lured the complainant by promising a role in a film and thereafter raped her at a Thiruvananthapuram hotel on January 28, 2016. The actor has denied the accusations.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court bench wondered why the complainant took eight years to approach the police when the incident allegedly took place in 2016. The complainant had even raised allegations against the accused and some others in 2018 on Facebook.

The bench said it did not want to assign elaborate reasons for granting relief to the actor given the sensitivity of the case. “However, considering the fact that the complainant had filed the complaint almost eight years after the alleged incident which had taken place in 2016 and had also posted 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,” the Supreme Court order said.

The Kerala High Court had denied anticipatory bail to Siddique on September 24 following which he moved the apex court. On September 29, the Supreme Court granted him interim protection from arrest. This was extended by two weeks on October 22 and then again by a week on November 12.

Opposing the plea, the Kerala Police had said in a counter affidavit that he was an “extremely influential person” and could “obstruct the course of justice and scuttle the investigative machinery”. The police expressed apprehension that the “witnesses who have boldly come forward after the Justice Hema Commission report will step back” if his interim protection from arrest was indefinitely prolonged.