KOLLAM: In the wake of the Hema Committee report, the harassment allegation against actor M Mukesh has resurfaced. Casting director Tess Joseph had accused Mukesh of inappropriate behaviour during an event several years ago. She reignited the harassment allegation on Saturday, claiming that Mukesh summoned her to his hotel room multiple times during the event.
Taking to Instagram, she expressed her disillusionment with the justice system and the industry’s response to such issues.
“We trust these systems to bring us justice, but when I see endless lawyers lining up to defend the state in West Bengal or the silence of an industry on the Hema Committee report, it feels like justice isn’t even the point anymore,” she posted.
“How can I trust that things will get better? Trust? It’s become a commodity, something I’m not willing to hand out so easily anymore. That deeply saddens me,” she said further.
Tess first raised the allegation in 2018, saying that Mukesh, who was a presenter on the television quiz programme Kodeeswaran when the alleged incident happened, persistently called her during the event she was organising. She recounted being relocated to a room next to Mukesh’s, further exacerbating the situation.
Mukesh, now the Kollam MLA, has refuted the allegation, dismissing it as a political conspiracy.
“I am being targeted because I am a CPM MLA. I don’t know who is behind this but their motive is clearly political. I have never met this woman. I clarified this when the same allegation was raised in 2018. Bringing up an incident that supposedly occurred 26 years ago is absurd. If I were not a CPM MLA, these allegations would never have been made,” Mukesh said.