KOCHI: The Kerala High Court refused to grant anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique in a sexual harassment case filed by a woman actor at the Museum police station in Thiruvananthapuram .
According to the complainant, the actor allegedly raped her at the Mascot Hotel in Thiruvananthapuram in 2016. The offences alleged in the FIR registered against him are under Section 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the case.
In his petition, Siddique argued that he had been subjected to a prolonged campaign of harassment and false accusations by the same complainant since 2019. Over the past five years, the complainant has repeatedly made false claims of “attempted sexual misconduct” and “verbal sexual propositions” by the petitioner at a theatre in 2016. However, she has now raised a contradictory allegation of a more serious crime of rape at a different location in the same year. To substantiate his claims, Siddique presented several Facebook posts of the complainant, which he argues demonstrate that throughout the years, her allegations consistently referenced attempted sexual misconduct and verbal prepositions at the theatre in 2016.
"The complainant is aware that a simple allegation of attempted sexual assault is a bailable offence; therefore, the petitioner could not be taken into custody. It is to make out a case warranting arrest and detention of the petitioner that the complainant has now come up with an allegation of rape," the petition stated.
Siddique pointed out that the complainant's initial allegations in 2019, which were repeated in subsequent years, placed the incident at a theatre where a movie preview was held. This location, according to him, is inherently unsuitable for non-verbal sexual acts, limiting the alleged misconduct to verbal abuse. The complainant has since conducted research to identify a more conducive setting, now claiming that the incident occurred in a hotel room where she alleged the rape took place. Siddique contended that this significant change in narrative reveals a deliberate and calculated effort to implicate him falsely.
When the case came up in front of the bench, Justice C.S. Dias said, "The application is dismissed."